Those cooling systems themselves use electricity, as do the air conditioners that Oregonians are now buying up in droves.
#Electrical grids in the us install#
“That means the past is no longer predictive of the future.”Ī Portland-area power company even had to install extra cooling systems to prevent its own equipment from overheating.
“That is scary, because that means you don't know what's happened,” Bob Jenks, executive director of the Oregon Citizens’ Utility Board, said. In Portland, Oregon, temperatures this month have hit 116 degrees Fahrenheit - an all-time high - just one year after the state saw unprecedented wildfires as early in the year as Labor Day. “We’re going to get to a point where the current infrastructure and the current way of operating is going to continue to be strained by these extreme heat waves.” A dead fish from Lake Powell in the sand at Lone Rock Beach in Big Water, Utah, on June 23, 2021. “This topic is on top of every utility’s agenda right now,” said Omar Al-Juburi, a digital power grid consultant at Ernst & Young.
That raises significant questions about the nation’s readiness for a future in which, climate scientists say, global warming is expected to make extreme weather events even more common. From generation at power plants to the transmission lines that carry electricity to homes and businesses, just about every part of the power system performs worse in conditions that are intensely hot and dry.
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