How Extreme Heat Threatens the Electrical Grid

This year's heat wave, writes Jonathan Thompson, exposed critical vulnerabilities in our infrastructure. And "the heat’s biggest — and perhaps most consequential — infrastructure victim was the vast electricity grid that powers nearly every aspect of modern life." 

"Extreme weather exacerbated by climate change can mess with the grid in any number of ways: Cold can freeze gas lines, while hurricanes topple transmission towers. But heat, particularly when combined with hydropower-depleting drought, has an especially deleterious effect, wreaking havoc on the power system just when the warmer climes need it most."

By their very existence, "power plants — the fossil-fueled 'heart' of the grid — make climate change worse and the planet even warmer, creating a feedback loop that resembles a gigantic electrical monster swallowing its own tail," Thompson writes. In addition, the hot air blown out of homes by air conditioners "actually exacerbates the urban heat island effect" and "raises the ambient temperature, increasing the need for air conditioning" in a vicious cycle. Adding to the problem, hydroelectric dams, which supply roughly 10 percent of U.S. power, lose generating capacity as their water levels drop "due to reduced flows and heat-induced evaporation." Today, reservoirs across the West–and their accompanying hydroelectric dams–are at dangerously low levels. 

"The best way to avoid a heat-caused collapse of the grid," says Thompson, "is to slow human-caused climate change by cutting carbon emissions. That requires decarbonization of the grid by replacing fossil fuels with clean energy sources and–just as important–an overall reduction in energy use."