Extreme weather risks, rising energy demand prompt new power industry strategies

US power companies are developing new strategies to deal with extreme weather risks and escalating electricity demand, including boosting voltage levels of existing transmission lines, signing major new interconnection deals, and leveraging the availability of backup generators.

"You've got to look local and then you've got to think bigger as well," Todd Hillman, senior vice president and chief customer officer for the Midcontinent ISO, said during an Aug. 7 webinar hosted by the United States Energy Association.

In addition to spending north of $20 billion to build out its regional transmission system, Hillman stressed the need for MISO to work with its neighbors to increase the resilience of the grid. To that end, MISO and the Southwest Power Pool are about to ask the Federal Regulatory Energy Commission to approve "a joint targeted interconnection" deal, Hillman noted.

"We always like to say here, the best megawatts to use are the ones that are already built," Hillman said. "So if we can optimize the existing system, there is tremendous value there as we look at this energy transition."

In Texas, grid planners are rethinking how to make the overall grid more resilient by, among other things, testing the capacity of the transmission lines themselves.

"We're starting to look at other steps of voltage in our transmission system, stepping up from what we have today across Texas, a 345-kV system, and starting to evaluate, could a 500- or 765-kV system with a strong backbone network built across the state provide added resilience in isolated areas?" Pablo Vegas, president of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas Inc., said at the webinar.

ERCOT is also taking a fresh look at backup generators that many homeowners have installed to keep lights on during outages.

"If we kind of step back and look at where we're headed as an energy system, and the potential for grid operators to have more visibility and more engagement with those distributed resources that are out in the system, there's really an opportunity to leverage these assets for the benefit of all consumers," Vegas said. "These resources could be part of demand response. ... That's a real opportunity for us as grid operators, and for utility companies across the board."

Vegas said the system could be modeled after the demand response programs that Texas datacenters and large commercial customers participate in today.

'Uptick in risk'

The discussion about grid resiliency and extreme weather came as wildfires continued to rage in California. The largest blaze, known as the Park Fire in northern California, has burned nearly 426,000 acres as of Aug. 7 and has destroyed more than 600 buildings. In Colorado, wildfires have caused evacuations and power outages in recent days.

Such blazes, while endemic to the American West, are becoming more common and destructive amid shifts in background conditions due to climate change, such as increasing aridity and rising average temperatures.

"We are seeing an uptick in risk, we are seeing an uptick in impact," said Scott Aaronson, senior vice president of security and preparedness at the Edison Electric Institute, the trade group for investor-owned utilities. "We are also seeing the extraordinary capabilities of the industry to respond and recover from these incidents, [and] we're also seeing the value of resilience to prevent these incidents from happening in the first place. Part of the philosophy here is to make sure that bad days, which are inevitable, do not become catastrophic."

Since 2020, California has added more than 20,000 MW of new generation to its grid to meet growing demand for power and to be better prepared for extreme weather while also investing in a strategic resource reserve, California ISO President and CEO Elliot Mainzer said.

"We've made some tough decisions," Mainzer said during the webinar. "Governor [Gavin] Newsom extending the life of a nuclear plant, putting small gas plants on a standby reserve capability; we just went through a record setting heat wave in California — many places broke a lot of record temperatures — and we came out fine."

CAISO is now working with regulators and the state's utilities to ensure everybody is prepared for a potential September heat wave.

"We know we're exposed, and that's why we've got a solid playbook," Mainzer said.