https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/02/210216115001.htm

The paper, "What Causes Natural Gas Fuel Shortages at U.S. Power Plants?" by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, was published in Energy Policy.

Gas shortages at generators have caused simultaneous failures of several power plants. Physical failures and disruptions of the natural gas pipeline network are rare; the authors found that they account for no more than 5% of the power plant generation lost to fuel shortages over the six years examined. The vast majority of the natural gas generator outages due to fuel unavailability were due to curtailment of gas when supplies were tight. In the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic states, natural gas was available but power plants that did not purchase firm contracts were out-prioritized by commercial and industrial customers.