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Dive Brief:
The availability of conventional generation fell in 2025, “largely driven” by declining performance of coal and gas generation, which saw a 39.8 TWh and 19.1 TWh increase in unavailable energy, respectively, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. said in its 2026 State of Reliability report.
“This is driving a reduction in deployable reserves, which are shrinking as forced outage rates increase, creating potential for tight operating conditions that can lead to system events,” NERC said.
Annual weighted equivalent forced outage rates spiked to 9.2% in 2025, “compared to historical norms rarely exceeding 8%,” according to NERC. “Coal and combined-cycle units were the primary drivers of this increase.”
