Stormy Weather: Assessing Climate Change Hazards to Electric Power Infrastructure: A Sandy Case Study

Power system infrastructure is subject to damage from a wide range of extreme weather events, including hurricanes, tornadoes, lightning storms, snow and ice storms, floods, storm tides, heat waves, droughts, and more (see Figure 1). As climate change occurs, scientists expect extreme events to become even more severe in some locations, resulting in more intense precipitation; longer, hotter heat waves; higher-intensity hurricanes; higher storm tides; more ice storms; and so on. The increased severity of extreme weather events will subject the electric grid to higher levels of risk. Enhanced understanding of these risks can help utility executives and regulators make better decisions regarding the levels of risk that are tolerable and the measures and financial resources required to manage risk to acceptable levels. In this article, we discuss a case study undertaken to evaluate how future climate change might impact the electricity delivery system on Long Island, New York. The study used a scenario-based approach to examine how warmer atmospheric, soil, and sea surface temperatures would affect the evolution and impact of a Superstorm Sandy-like storm in the future.