EPRI’s Climate REsilience and ADaptation initiative (READi) is dedicated to developing a comprehensive and consistent approach to assessing physical climate risk to power industry assets and systems and identifying a framework to address those risks and enhance resilience of the systems. The objective of this effort is to develop a common approach to risk identification, adaptation, and planning for the impacts of climate change on energy grid assets and the integrated power system. In this literature review, we seek to review the current state of knowledge of potential vulnerabilities to electric generating stations from physical climate hazards and to consider their applicability to safe and reliable operation of thermal and renewable power stations. The effort is focused on sources addressing how current and changing climate can impact power facilities and what the climate-related impacts are anticipated to be.
Key takeaways include the following. For thermal generating facilities, key climate drivers primarily include high and low air temperatures (and associated water temperatures), flooding, and low water conditions. For wind turbines, high and low winds are the primary climate drivers, with flooding, air temperature extremes, and icing also being important. At hydroelectric facilities, changes in the hydrological regime are most impactful, although air temperature extremes and icing are also important. Lastly, for solar facilities, high and low winds, air temperature extremes, hail/snow/ice, flooding, lightning, and wildfires are all potential impactful. Exposure levels and detailed impact mechanisms for generating facilities are very site- and model-specific.
The development of a framework to assess climate change risk and vulnerability across the electric power sector would guide an organized, thorough, and efficient approach to managing climate change risk at these facilities.