Amy Roma, Mary Anne Sullivan, Sachin Desai and Stephanie Fishman wrote:

Many advanced reactor developers are designing their technologies to pair with renewables.  A recent report from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), the government entity responsible for overseeing America’s bulk power system, underscores the benefits that can be achieved through an advanced nuclear/renewable energy partnership to compensate for the intermittent nature of solar and wind power.

For power grids relying on renewable energy, supply and demand hang in a balance based on the time of day and weather forecast. To maintain equilibrium in grid systems powered by renewable energy, flexible backup sources must remain online at all times. To date, storage resources are not providing the necessary back-up, hindered by both technology and costs, leaving natural gas and hydro plants to take on the role of providing standby capacity services. As the intermittent renewable energy capacity increases in power grids as a proportion of overall capacity, the industry requires more flexible power generation options, providing an opportunity for advanced reactors to support renewables while continuing to decarbonize of the electricity sector. Advanced nuclear power technologies are intended to operate flexibly, either at full capacity (producing large amounts of reliable, carbon free-electricity) or load following paired with renewable energy (producing just enough when needed to meet demand), promoting both decarbonization and reliability of the grid at any time of day.