In February 2025, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), and its Regional Entities launched a joint review of the Bulk Power System’s performance during what are called “the January 2025 arctic events,” which comprised Winter Storms Blair, Cora, Demi, and Enzo. It titled the report: “January 2025 Arctic Events: A System Performance Review.”

(Unless otherwise stated, this period runs from January 3 to January 24, 2025, and it will be referred to as the January 2025 arctic events throughout this report. For the purposes of this report: Winter Storm Blair takes place from January 3 to January 9, 2025; Winter Storm Cora runs from January 9 to January 12, 2025; and Winter Storm Demi/Enzo spans January 19 to January 24, 2025.)

The team focused on four key areas: weather conditions, operating conditions, electric grid performance, and natural gas system performance.

The team engaged with ten electric entities across the Eastern and Texas Interconnections to gather the information necessary to provide a high-level overview of the Bulk Power System’s performance during the January 2025 arctic events. The team also collaborated with three natural gas associations in connection with its review.

Between January 21 and 22, 2025, natural gas demand peaked at 150 Bcf/day, electric demand peaked at 683 GW, and unplanned generator outages peaked at 71,022 MW. Nonetheless, during the January 2025 arctic events, manual load shed was not required.

The team has identified improvements in generator availability and firm load shed since Winter Storms Uri and Elliott. During Winter Storm Uri in Texas and the South-Central United States, 61,305 MW of generation was unavailable resulting in 23,418 MW of firm load shed.

Throughout Winter Storm Elliott, 90,500 MW of generation was unavailable, resulting in 5,400 MW of firm load shed. In contrast, during the January 2025 arctic events, 71,022 MW of generation was unavailable resulting in no firm load shed.

This demonstrates that, during the January 2025 arctic events, the natural gas and electric systems performed well and benefitted from improved practices and procedures.

The 90,500 MW of unavailable generation during Winter Storm Elliott represented a portion of the Eastern Interconnection, whereas the 71,022 MW of unavailable generation during the January 2025 arctic events covered the majority of the Eastern and Texas Interconnections.

Additionally, Winter Storm Uri occurred over 13 days in February 2021 whereas Winter Storm Elliott was six days in December 2022. In contrast, the January 2025 arctic events spanned 22 days. Thus, the January 2025 arctic events were longer than Winter Storm Uri and Elliott combined.

The team has several key observations, including that several participating entities set new winter peak demand during the January 2025 arctic events. The natural gas industry also met record natural gas demand and supported near record level natural gas demand for power generation, using a combination of real-time production and storage during these events. In addition, the team noted steps taken to improve energy transfers and minimal natural gas production declines during the January 2025 arctic events.

The team noted that the natural gas and electric systems are heavily reliant on one another to maintain reliable operations. For this reason, the team concluded that increased and further improved communication between the two is necessary to prepare for and respond to these extreme cold weather events in real-time.

Nonetheless, both systems continue to see challenges from extreme cold weather conditions, exposing continued gaps. Further, both systems must continue to work collaboratively to prepare for and respond to extreme cold weather events and take into account infrastructure needs to maintain reliability and resilience.

While progress has been made, both systems should continue to implement recommendations and beneficial practices, as feasible, from the Winter Storm Uri and Elliott reports as well as the December 2023 “blackstart” study and Winter Storms Gerri and Heather system performance review.