NORTH AMERICAN ELECTRIC RELIABILITY CORPORATION
NERC Lauds NASEM Decarbonization Report

NERC commends the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine's (NASEM) recent report focused on obstacles to decarbonization. The report, Accelerating Decarbonization in the United States: Technology, Policy, and Societal Dimensions (2023), examines the status of technologies, policies and societal factors needed for decarbonization and recommends that research and policy need to support this transformation, focusing on the near and midterm (5-20 years) timeframe.

"The work is an outstanding contribution to the dialogue around the grid transformation," noted Mark Lauby, NERC' s senior vice president and chief engineer and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. "The report supports our view that natural gas generation will remain essential through the transition, providing the necessary support required to buttress the electric energy infrastructure so it is ready to decarbonize the grid and further enable decarbonization of other sectors."

The report emphasizes the importance of resource dispatchability, which, for the next decade and likely beyond, will be principally comprised of natural gas and other fossil fuel-fired generation. Further, the report identifies the need to expand the high-voltage interstate transmission grid to enable the transportation of energy across long-distances to areas deficient in energy. This expansion is in addition to the modernization of local electricity distribution systems, deployment of energy resources (such as solar and storage) close to customers, and a much more aggressive adoption of energy efficiency programs.