Why Electric Grids Need to Be More Resilient

In October 2014, the remnants of Hurricane Sandy pummeled the northeast coast of the United States with eighty miles per hour winds, torrential rain, and a storm surge as high as fourteen feet in some places. It was not the first time a tropical storm had hit the area, but it would prove to be one of the most devastating. The storm resulted in 159 deaths and caused $65 billion in damage across the northeast. After Hurricane Katrina, Sandy was the second-costliest hurricane in U.S. history.  

The storm was particularly devastating to the area’s electricity infrastructure. The high winds and falling branches knocked out power lines. Storm surges flooded electrical stations, causing some to dramatically explode. In some cases, the storm forced entire power plants to shut down. By the time the storm dissipated, it had left 8.5 million people without power. More than a million were left in the dark for a week or more.  

For many of the states affected, Hurricane Sandy was a wake-up call. Energy infrastructure was not prepared to handle extreme weather. 

The northeastern United States is not the only place where electricity systems are vulnerable to extreme weather. And electricity infrastructure doesn’t need a hurricane to shut down.  

The nonprofit Climate Central estimates that roughly 80 percent of U.S. power outages in the twenty-first century have been caused by weather. Over half those outages were caused by severe weather, including high winds and intense storms.  
 

Climate change makes those weather events worse—not just in the United States. Events like heat waves, tropical storms, flooding, wildfires, and even winter storms are increasing in intensity, frequency, or both. Such weather can damage energy infrastructure and make power transmission less efficient. They can also drive increased demand for power; during heat waves, for example, people use more energy to keep their homes cool. Increased use can cause power outages, often at moments when people need electricity the most. Those outages are damaging people and economies. And without updates to make energy grids more resilient, they could keep getting worse. 

This learning resource will explore how energy grids are vulnerable to extreme weather and what people can do to reinforce them.  

How does climate change threaten the energy grid? 

The energy grid is an infrastructure system that produces and distributes electricity. Energy grids are typically divided into three stages: generation, transmission, and delivery. 

Each of those stages is vulnerable to extreme weather. 

Generation

Generation involves the production of electricity. This includes fossil fuel or nuclear power plants, wind turbines, and solar panels. 

Severe weather can damage electricity generation. High temperatures can make turbines inside power plants less efficient. Droughts can make cooling power plants more difficult or strain hydroelectric plants, reducing their generating capacity. In 2023, for instance, droughts in China led to a 14 percent drop in hydropower production in the country. Floods, too, can cause shutdowns of power plants in coastal areas or along rivers. Nuclear plants, which require a lot of water for cooling, are especially vulnerable to flooding.  

Transmission

Transmission is how power plants and other generation sites transport energy to consumers.  

Consider power lines. When Hurricane Sandy hit the United States, floods, high winds, and falling branches caused power lines to fail. Transmission infrastructure is also vulnerable to high temperatures, which cause lines to sag and malfunction. Heat can also increase electrical resistance in power lines, making transmission less effective. Extreme cold poses a threat too. Ice can accumulate on power lines, eventually dragging them down. And power outages are not the only risk associated with damage to transmission systems. Failing transmission infrastructure can harm structures around it or even spark wildfires if power lines break.  

Delivery 

The last vulnerable feature of the energy grid is the consumer. Heating and cooling homes uses great deal of electricity. During a June 2024 heat wave, daily electricity demand in parts of the United States rose between 1 and 24 percent compared to those same days the previous year. Increased need for electricity during weather events can overload the grid and cause blackouts. As extreme weather events grow more intense due to climate change, they pose an increasing risk to the grid system. 

Who is affected by vulnerable energy grids? 

Power outages don’t just inconvenience people. They can hit hospitals, offices, transportation hubs, and first-responder buildings. They affect access to water, food, health care, travel, communication systems, and other essential services. Those effects can often be lethal. One study found that blackouts during heat waves can more than double the number of heat-related deaths.  

Like many other climate disasters and consequences, outages don’t affect everyone equally.  

One metric to assess disparity is power restoration time, or how long before electricity goes back on. Researchers have found correlations between a population’s social vulnerability and its restoration time. A study on Hurricane Maria, which struck Puerto Rico in 2017, showed that rural and Black communities waited the longest for their power to return.  

Wait times matter. Studies also show that power outages entail increased health risks—particularly to older adults, people using electricity-dependent medical equipment, people unable to evacuate their homes, and people with underlying health conditions. Moreover, outages put lower-income households at more risk, especially if they lack adequate supplies.   

Energy disruption also has larger, countrywide repercussions.  

Hurricane Sandy is estimated to have cost the United States $65 billion. That’s no small price tag even in a wealthy, developed country. But power outages can be especially expensive for low- or middle-income countries. A World Bank study [PDF] estimated that electricity outages from unreliable infrastructure are costing those countries $82 billion each year in business losses.  

How to protect the energy grid 

There are two main ways to protect the energy grid: use less electricity and improve energy infrastructure. 

Conserving Electricity 

Conservation involves decreasing the demand for electricity where possible and increasing the efficiency of electrical appliances. Countries around the world are already taking steps to encourage conservation in homes and businesses. New regulations, for instance, can impose energy efficiency standards on items like lightbulbs and electrical appliances. Updated building codes are taking energy efficiency into consideration. Meanwhile, many governments are also offering tax credits to make it easier for families to invest in more energy-efficient technology, such at-home solar panels or heat pumps.  
 

Individual behavior can also play a part in energy conservation. People can make energy-conscious choices like turning down the thermostat when they’re not home. Governments have asked residents to keep conservation in mind during times of high demand. Finland, for instance, has reduced the strain on its grid during peak times by asking residents to lower their thermostats and spend a little less time in the sauna.  

Still, people are becoming more reliant on electricity, not less. Ultimately, the world needs to be able to meet its energy needs while also protecting its infrastructure from climate consequences. 

Hardening the Grid 

In the United States, electric grid infrastructure suffers from a common problem: it’s old. Much of it was built in the 1960s and 1970s. Most transmission lines, for example, have a lifespan of between fifty and eighty years: more than 70 percent of them are over twenty-five years old. 

Making the electric grid more resilient, then, means a lot of updating and rebuilding. Some updates include damage prevention, or what’s called “hardening the grid.” For transmission lines, hardening can mean burying aboveground lines, replacing those old wooden poles, and trimming trees near lines.  

Another adaptation strategy is to design “microgrids.” Microgrids are smaller grids more easily powered by renewable energy. Picture a college campus, for instance—a contained geographical space with smaller energy demand. Microgrids can also reduce the risk of a single point of failure triggering widespread outages. Another grid innovation is to use smart grid technologies, like sensors, that give operators better grid data and help manage stability. Smart grids can also reroute power if problems arise. And they can store energy in batteries for backup.  

Of course, one big obstacle to updating is money.  

BloombergNEF estimates that global grid updates—including efforts to boost resiliency and meet rising demand worldwide— could cost $24.1 trillion. The United States and China will have to spend the most—around $1 trillion each.  

However, although investing in the grid is expensive now, it can help countries avoid future costs and meet rising electricity demand in the future.