PASADENA, Texas, Jan. 25, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pinnacle, a reliability data analytics company, released its Economics of Reliability report for the US power generation, transmission, and distribution industry today. The report, which is the fifth installment of Pinnacle’s Economics of Reliability report series, analyzes the impact that reliability has on the power industry.

“In February 2021, Texans learned firsthand the price to be paid when electrical systems fail,” said Jeff Krimmel, Chief Strategy Officer at Pinnacle. “Many key facilities in Texas were vulnerable to extreme cold temperatures and when such an unexpected, widespread weather event struck, the power infrastructure broke down in painful ways. As power companies continue to adapt to the electrification of the economy and stricter carbon emissions regulations, the reliability of their assets will become even more critical to preventing future catastrophic events.”

The report leverages data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) and financial reports of 32 publicly traded US power generation, transmission, and distribution companies including Duke Energy, NextEra Energy, and NRG Energy. Pinnacle analysts estimate that the US power generation industry spends about $20 billion on reliability per year.

“In our analysis, we see that in 2011 through 2020, the total electricity generated in the US increased while the amount of carbon emissions produced decreased,” said Krimmel. “In 2011, 43% of the total electricity generated in the US was produced by coal while natural gas only generated 24% of the total. In 2020, coal only accounted for 20% of the total electricity generation while natural gas produced 40%. While there are numerous factors that can affect carbon emissions, this shift shows one measure of the environmental impact that moving toward natural gas and renewables as the primary sources of electricity generation can have on carbon emissions intensity.”

For more information or to download the report, visit pinnaclereliability.com.