Over numerous decades working in the electricity industry I’ve seen more network outages caused by storms, bushfires, floods, and landslides than I can care to count or remember.

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But there’s been a marked uptick in recent years of outages that are attributable to extreme weather events. In the US, 80% of all major U.S. power outages reported from 2000 to 2023, were due to extreme weather, according to data compiled by Climate Central.

The U.S. experienced around twice the number of weather-related outages during the last decade than in the decade before. While scientists still debate the exact contribution of climate change to intensifying storms and other kinds of extreme weather, they agree that we will likely see more frequent and powerful events.

Electricity network infrastructure is increasingly vulnerable to extreme weather events and changing environmental conditions driven by climate change. This vulnerability poses significant risks to the reliability and resilience of power systems worldwide.  

As climate change progresses, the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as hurricanes, heatwaves, floods, and cold spells are expected to increase, leading to more frequent and severe disruptions in electricity supply.

Many of the outages' consumers have experienced in recent years are not directly down to damaging storms, fires or floods themselves. Network operators are frequently shutting down network infrastructure in anticipation of extreme weather, in a bid to lessen damage and safeguard the public and their own workers.

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A world of extremes

Exacerbating the problem is that extreme weather manifests in widely varying ways around the world. For instance, the likelihood of power outages due to hurricanes is projected to increase by 50% in certain regions of the United States.

In France, water restrictions due to drought conditions last year led to nuclear power plants pausing production as they couldn’t source sufficient quantities of water to cool their plants.

Low temperatures and heavy snow can cause icing on wind turbines and overhead lines, leading to failures in transmission and distribution systems. This was notably seen during the cold wave in Texas in the winter of 2021, when disruption to natural gas, thermal and wind power production, resulted in widespread power outages.

Last February, Cyclone Gabrielle triggered flooding in the Hawkes Bay region of New Zealand, swamping a key substation that supplied power to tens of thousands of households.

Groundline’s engineers working with customers around the world, from Australia to the United Kingdom are seeing firsthand the impact of extreme weather on electricity infrastructure. We deal with ice storms, bush fires, cyclones, and flash floods. The intensity and power of Mother Nature never ceases to amaze us.

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The impacts of these extreme weather events are numerous:

Structural failures: Extreme winds and ice storms can surpass the mechanical capacity and pressure tolerance of power lines, leading to structural failures. Power lines coming into contact with trees can trigger bushfires that then knock out lines and substations.

Generation efficiency: High temperatures and droughts affect hydropower and thermal power generation, reducing overall efficiency and reliability. Without generation, you have nothing to distribute.

Demand fluctuations: Climate change alters electricity demand patterns, with higher temperatures increasing demand for cooling and lower temperatures increasing heating needs. This is forcing local authorities to put in place increasingly restrictive energy and water use rules on a more frequent basis.

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Avoiding the ‘clip-on’ mentality

Infrastructure designed decades ago is clearly ill-equipped to deal with the impacts of a changing climate. Hundreds of billions of dollars are being spent every year on upgrading electricity infrastructure and increasingly energy generation.  

But too much of that investment is made without taking a holistic approach to enhancing resilience, adaptability, and the sustainability of power systems. We need to do better as an industry. It’s always tempting to opt for low-price options now, particularly in a fiscally constrained environment.

This is an age-old problem when it comes to infrastructure investment. In Groundline’s home country, New Zealand, the impressive Auckland Harbour Bridge spans the Waitemata Harbour in our largest city. It was built in 1954 as a four-lane bridge. But rapid growth in traffic volumes meant the bridge had to be expanded to eight lanes in 1968, with the addition of “Nippon clip-ons” (nicknamed as such as the bridge segments were made in Japan).  

The Auckland Harbour Bridge clip-ons being added in 1968.

In the 1980s significant upgrades were required to deal with stress cracks due to the higher load on the bridge, which to this day faces reduced capacity in periods of high wind as a safety precaution. Plans for an additional bridge or undersea tunnel are regularly considered to relieve pressure on the Auckland Harbour Bridge.  

Auckland’s transport planners knew back in the 1950s that bridge usage would expand quickly as the city grew, but the investment decision was made to build a bridge that very quickly was no longer fit for purpose. The cost in the long run of adding clip-on lanes and the constant repairs to keep the bridge operational have probably cost rate and taxpayers more in the long run. An original plan to include pathways for foot traffic was scrapped to save money and the bridge is pedestrian free to this day.

Skimping on resilience now can come back to bite us before long. It’s no different in the electricity sector. Utility companies and their customers will increasingly be required to shoulder the cost of fixing broken infrastructure unless we fundamentally change our approach to planning and building electricity networks.  

But resilient, fit for purpose doesn’t necessarily require spending more upfront. In fact, we’ve been able to advise many of our customers on resilience measures that actually lower the construction cost of power line infrastructure projects.

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By Ian Flatley