Economic Benefits of Increasing Electric Grid Resilience to Weather Outages

Book excerpt: In June 2011, President Obama released "A Policy Framework for the 21st Century Grid" which set out a strategy for modernizing the electric grid. The initiative directed billions of dollars toward investments in 21st century smart grid technologies focused at increasing the grid's efficiency, reliability, and resilience, and making it less vulnerable to weather-related outages and reducing the time it takes to restore power after an outage occurs. Grid resilience is increasingly important as climate change increases the frequency and intensity of severe weather, which is the leading cause of power outages in the U.S. Between 2003 and 2012, an estimated 679 widespread power outages occurred due to severe weather. This report estimates the annual cost of power outages caused by severe weather between 2003 and 2012 and describes various strategies for modernizing the grid and increasing grid resilience. Over this period, weather-related outages are estimated to have cost the U.S. economy an inflation-adjusted annual average of $18 billion to $33 billion. Continued investment in grid modernization and resilience will mitigate these costs over time. Figures. This is a print on demand report.