Record Heat and an Aging Electrical Grid Increase the Risk of Power Outages.

The growing risk of overlapping heat waves and power failures poses a severe threat to power resiliency. For example, from 2015 to 2020, the number of blackouts annually in the U.S. doubled. Moreover, those blackouts were most likely to occur during the summer months when there is an increased demand on the electrical grid to power air-conditioning.

The U.S. electrical system consists of three major “grids” that span the Lower 48 states: the Eastern Interconnection, the Western Interconnection, and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. In a recent assessment, the American Society of Civil Engineers gave the nation’s energy infrastructure a C- grade, reporting that electricity delivery depends on an aging grid and complex patchwork of power generation facilities, transmission, and distribution lines constructed in the 1950s and 1960s.

High temperatures and other severe weather appear to be here to stay and the power outages they cause can be devastating to business operations. Given the instability of the grid, the best preparedness plan is to have a generator. And to make sure that the generator stays in optimal running condition.

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