FERC-NERC Report Finds Sharp Drop in Winter Storm Outages But Flags Persistent Gas-Grid Gaps
A joint FERC-NERC review finds a marked drop in storm-driven unplanned outages since 2021 and 2022, but flags persistent gas-system coordination and infrastructure shortfalls.
Power generators across the United States recorded sharply fewer unplanned outages during extreme cold in the winters of 2024-25 and 2025-26 than during the severe storms of 2021 and 2022, according to a joint report FERC and NERC released Thursday (2026-09-10). The agencies credited changes plant owners and grid operators have made in cold-weather preparation, while stopping short of declaring the problem solved.5
The improvement is measured against a severe baseline. Winter Storm Uri in February 2021 knocked out a substantial portion of Texas's generating fleet, triggered emergency declarations across the South and Midwest, and exposed how poorly most generators were equipped for sustained cold. Five years of regulatory effort followed. Two winters of sharply improved performance suggest that effort has had a measurable effect.3,5
FERC said in the report that better electric- and gas-system coordination is still needed, along with improved load forecasting and additional infrastructure including gas storage facilities. The coordination gap between the gas and power industries has persisted across successive FERC and NERC winter reviews. Natural gas continues to play an important role in meeting demand during extreme winter weather events, NERC's Winter Reliability Assessment noted, while its reliability in those conditions depends on fuel supply chains that fall outside federal electric reliability standards.5,2
NERC's 2025-26 Winter Reliability Assessment found working natural gas storage inventories in the United States about 5% above the previous five-year average entering that season, providing a modest buffer. But the assessment also flagged a lack of consistent standards for cold-weather protection of natural gas infrastructure, a gap NERC has raised repeatedly since Uri.2
Regulators have moved to tighten requirements. A revised cold-weather standard called EOP-011-4 removes ambiguous cost language from the Generator Cold Weather Constraint definition and mandates compliance enforcement authority validation, reviewed every 36 months. NERC is also required to file biennial reports to FERC from October 2026 through October 2034, creating a formal accountability structure that did not previously exist.3
The improved winter storm numbers sit alongside a more complicated overall picture. NERC's 2026 State of Reliability report found conventional generation availability fell in 2025, driven largely by the coal and gas fleets. Coal generation saw a 39.8 TWh increase in unavailable energy that year; gas added 19.1 TWh, NERC reported. Cold-weather storm response and annual aggregate availability measure different things, but both datasets point to a fleet under sustained operational pressure.4
NYMEX Henry Hub front-month gas was flat at $2.92/MMBtu on Wednesday (2026-09-16). At that level, fuel costs for gas generators remain manageable, but the price environment provides limited financial incentive for the accelerated investment in weatherization and gas storage that FERC identified as still insufficient.5
The Midcontinent Independent System Operator, which serves roughly 45 million people across 15 states from Louisiana to North Dakota and the Canadian province of Manitoba, moved off summer high-risk watch lists in 2026, according to Canary Media. MISO's winter risk profile differs considerably from its summer exposure, and FERC's warnings about gas-coordination gaps apply across the interconnection, not only to regions that previously struggled during acute cold events.1,5
The first NERC biennial report under the post-Uri framework is due in October 2026, ahead of the 2026-27 winter heating season. That report will offer the earliest formal read on whether plant-level compliance changes are holding across the fleet — or whether two improved winters reflected favorable weather conditions more than durable preparation.3