Impact of Meteorological Events on Electric Generation Emissions

In 2011 and 2012, climate events led to forced outages and capacity deratings at numerous electric generation facilities. The local causative factors included flooding, water shortages, excessive water temperatures, fuel shipment delays and transmission line congestion. Our analysis uses EIA and EPA data to establish baseline generator availability and to determine where load shifting occurred on a plant level in response to these events. We examine the effect of this induced shift in generation on emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide.