grid hardening

Utilities, federal agencies, and the national labs have finally assembled the tools to harden the grid against an increasingly hostile environment. The question is whether they can put them together fast enough. When a line of storms tore across the Northeast in late April 2025, racing from Ohio into central Pennsylvania, meteorologists recognized the signature […]

Companies are deploying a variety of strategies in efforts to strengthen the power grid against severe weather and other issues.

Extreme weather is making one thing clear—hardening of the power grid alone is not enough to solve the problem of keeping the lights on.

Ameren Illinois and Ameren Missouri found a “creative” way to strengthen their utility service territory by strategically installing fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composite utility poles by Creative

In the past decade, we have seen “once in a century storms” almost every year, flash floods wiping out entire towns, and extreme heat that melts shoes on pavement. Our climate is becoming more extreme, and we need to be proactive in preparing our infrastructure for more to come. The annual average for U.S. billion-dollar […]

The U.S. electric grid is under more strain than ever to support exponential electricity demand due to artificial intelligence (AI), data centers, electric vehicles, and hotter temperatures. Its infrastructure is made up of 180 million power poles spread out over 5.5 million miles that are frequently bombarded with increasingly severe storms and weather. Worsening SAIDI […]

The U.S. transmission and distribution (T&D) network is reliable and well-maintained, but as renewable energy continues being added to the grid, and demand increases due to growing data center needs and the electrification of transportation and manufacturing processes, work is necessary to keep up with the changing times. The U.S. government understands the need for […]

Scientists who maintain the world’s temperature records, which date back to 1880, calculate a global temperature anomaly each year to determine how much temperatures have changed compared to temperatures from 1951 to 1980. In mid-January, they announced that 2023 was the hottest year on record. Furthermore, they said every month from June through December 2023 […]