SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (RFD NEWS) — This week’s winter storm caused electricity disruptions for many rural communities across the country. At the same time, a new assessment projects how extreme temperatures and rising electricity demand could affect the nation’s power grid in the years ahead.
Jim Matheson, CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), joined us on Friday’s Market Day Report to provide an update on how rural communities were affected by the recent extreme weather and how electric cooperatives have been responding to outages and system challenges.
In his interview with RFD NEWS, Matheson also discussed the findings of NRECA’s new long-term reliability assessment, outlining key highlights from the report and what they signal for the power grid’s future. The conversation focused on what these projections mean for rural communities and their access to reliable electricity, as well as the steps that may be needed moving forward to address reliability concerns.
A rapidly intensifying winter storm is expected to develop into a bomb cyclone this weekend, affecting the Southeast, southern Virginia, and potentially parts of the mid‑Atlantic and New England.
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