In bone-dry language, the report "Inquiry into Bulk-Power System Operations During December 2022 Winter Storm Elliott," explains how the gas pipeline network in New York nearly failed last Christmas when temperatures plummeted during the bomb cyclone.
While the lack of electricity was dangerous, the possibility of a loss of pressure in the natural gas network should send a bone-chilling shiver through the sacroiliac of every politician and bureaucrat in Washington, D.C., New York and the Northeast.
The report explains that if the gas pipeline system had failed, the recovery process in New York City would have taken "Months." In addition, the property damage due to damaged water pipes in homes and buildings would likely have caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.
Left unsaid in the report is that the collapse of the gas grid during the period in which temperatures in New York City stayed below freezing would have caused a calamity unlike any other in U.S. history.
A friend who works for the federal government in Washington, D.C., and is familiar with the FERC/NERC report told me last week that the loss of gas in New York City would have required evacuating most of the people in the city.
Here's the critical section of the report, which explains that Winter Storm Elliott "Greatly impacted the operations" of Consolidated Edison, the electric and gas utility that serves much of New York City.
If it took a week to restore service to 35,000 gas customers in Washington state, it's easy to understand how challenging it would be to restore service in a city as big and complex as New York.
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