power outages

In its recently released Winter Reliability Assessment, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) found that while resources are adequate for normal winter peak demand, large swaths of North America face an elevated risk of electricity shortfalls during prolonged, wide-area cold snaps. Noting that four severe Arctic storms have swept across much of the continent since […]

UPDATED (Oct. 11): The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has upgraded its G4-level “severe” geomagnetic storm watch to a G3-level “strong” geomagnetic storm warning after an anticipated coronal mass ejection (CME) arrived at Earth at 11:15 a.m. EST on Thursday, traveling at nearly 1.5 million miles per hour. The G3-level warning is now in […]

Electric cooperatives across the Southeast describe Hurricane Helene’s devastation as vast and unprecedented, warning that restoring some crucial infrastructure serving the not-for-profit entities’ customers will take a long and arduous process. In a call with reporters on Oct. 1—five days after the massive Category 4 storm made landfall—co-op leaders serving customers in Florida, Georgia, South […]

In today’s rapidly changing world, the effects of severe weather are felt more acutely and often; take Britain’s recent record temperatures topping 40°C. As nations commit to lowering emissions, promoting energy equality, and moving toward a more sustainable world, resilience to the effects of climate change must also be top of mind—namely, extreme weather events. […]

Hurricanes are the leading cause of power outages in the U.S. Power outages can make storms exponentially more dangerous for local populations, especially if they affect critical facilities like hospitals, fire stations, and police departments, which are vital in times of crisis. But what can utilities and municipalities do to prepare for natural disasters? How […]

It will be some time before we know every detail that aligned to cause the tremendous number of sustained power outages in Texas, or the spiking power prices across all markets in the central states. Some things we do know. Some natural gas supply was frozen in. Some wind turbines froze up, and ice damaged some […]

After Hurricane Michael made landfall near Mexico Beach, Florida, as a category 4 storm on October 10, it moved across Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and southeastern Virginia on October 11, and finally out into the Atlantic on October 12. According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Infrastructure Security and Energy Restoration office, the storm […]

Natural disasters can strike anywhere, and the events of recent years—hurricanes, flooding rains, bomb cyclones—have ramped up the efforts of utilities to prepare for extreme weather. Power companies are