Winter Storm Fern is expected to impact over 170 million Americans with bitter cold, snow, sleet, and ice, causing potential power outages and damaging infrastructure. The extreme weather could disrupt natural gas supplies, exacerbating the risk of blackouts, similar to what occurred during Winter Storm Uri in 2021, which led to over 200 deaths. The Department of Energy is preparing backup power generation to prevent outages, as the U.S. grid faces added strain from rising demand, including from data centers.
Key Points
- Winter Storm Fern is expected to impact more than 170 million Americans through Monday, according to the National Weather Service.
- The storm is forecast to bring bitter cold, snow, sleet and ice across the U.S.
- The extreme weather could disrupt natural gas supplies and cause power outages.
- More than 200 people died during Winter Storm Uri in 2021.
- Families could lose power as Winter Storm Fern is forecast to bring bitter cold, snow, sleet and ice from New Mexico up through New England this weekend.
The storm is expected to impact more than 170 million Americans through Monday, according to the National Weather Service. At least 14 states across the South, Midwest and Mid-Atlantic have issued emergency declarations.
Catastrophic ice accumulations are expected across the Southern Plains, Lower Mississippi Valley, the Tennessee Valley, and the Southeast that could result in "long-duration power outages, extensive tree damage, and extremely dangerous or impassable conditions," the NWS has warned.
Snowfalls greater than 12 inches are expected across the Ohio Valley, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast that could cause widespread travel disruptions.
The Department of Energy is ready to issue orders that would make backup power generation available to prevent blackouts, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said in a Thursday letter to electric grid operators.
Natural gas prices have soared about 70% this week as home heating demand is expected spike. Goldman Sachs has warned that the storm could significantly disrupt U.S. natural gas production.
"We expect this is going to disrupt supply as well because it freezes the wells, it freezes we think more than 10% of US natural gas production," Samantha Dart, a Goldman Sachs analyst, told CNBC on Friday.
"We use that for heating. We use that for power generation," Dart said. "So you're going to need the gas the most during the days when it's not going to be coming out of the ground."
Natural gas disruptions during extreme weather can be deadly.
Texas faced severe cold during Winter Storm Uri in February 2021, which resulted in more than 4 million people losing power for days. The blackouts were due to a significant loss of gas-fired power generation because not enough fuel could be delivered due to frozen wellheads and pipelines.
At least 210 people died during the storm. Most of the deaths were connected to the outages and included cases of hypothermia, carbon monoxide poisoning, and medical conditions exacerbated by freezing temperatures, according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
In our current situation, the electric grid in many parts of the U.S. is under strain due to rising demand from data centers and the slow construction of new power generation.
The North American Electric Reliability Corporation has warned that data center energy consumption will make it more difficult to maintain adequate electricity supply during extreme demand conditions like severe winter weather, particularly in states like Texas.
"Strong load growth from new data centers and other large industrial end users is driving higher winter electricity demand forecasts and contributing to continued risk of supply shortfalls," NERC said of Texas in an analysis published in November.
Energy Secretary Wright has asked grid operators to "be prepared to make backup generation resources at data centers and other major facilities available as needed" during this weekend's storm.