How To Prepare The Grid For The Temperature Rise

How climate change will stress the grid and what ISOs are doing about it; Global warming is expected to increase peak demand and extreme weather events, but new grid planning practices can help ensure power reliability

Herman K. Trabish, March 7, 2017 (Utility Dive)

“…[W]hile climate change skeptics wring their hands over the theoretical costs of global warming, the nation’s electricity system operators are already feeling it — and planning for its future effects. Average temperatures are rising across the U.S., pushing grid operators to examine whether they have adequate capacity to meet higher power demand and sharper spikes in peak load…[ A new study projects electricity demand to increase 2.8% across the U.S. by the end of the century and 3.5% during the summer in] a business-as-usual scenario. In more extreme cases, peak demand could rise 7.2% to 18%...Meeting that demand could require $120 billion to $180 billion in new natural gas peaker plants. But smart planning could save a lot of that cost…James Hoecker, former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), said that it is often difficult to get policymakers to respond to such long-term concerns…[but] stakeholders should plan today to prevent the need for costly system investments later…” click here for more

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