As the Great Lakes region experiences warmer and wetter weather, advocates say the time is now to prepare the electric grid for climate change.
Proposed federal rules could jumpstart a formal process for doing that — if regulators decide to finalize them next year.
Here’s what advocates, regulators and other grid experts say about the challenge and its potential solutions.
A three-day heat wave across much of the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions in September 2013 was one of four extreme heat or cold events since 2011 in which grid operators required transmission companies to cut off power to thousands of customers to avoid uncontrolled blackouts.
Other events include the February 2021 cold snap that froze power plants and wind farms in Texas, leading to widespread outages and a death toll of at least 246 people.
Temperature extremes can disrupt all types of electricity generation sources — including fossil fuel plants, nuclear plants, wind farms, and solar panels — while at the same time increasing the demand for power to heat and cool buildings.
“Extreme heat and cold weather events are occurring with greater frequency, and are projected to occur with even greater frequency in the future,” the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission wrote in a June 16 rulemaking notice addressing climate change and grid planning.
The Great Lakes region, in particular, is expected...
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