Recent extreme temperature events have challenged the energy grid, prompting new regulatory standards for grid resilience. However, the complex, non-linear relationship between weather and grid performance is often obscured by critical data gaps, thus planning for higher-intensity events without addressing these shortcomings can create a false sense of security. This technical brief summarizes a survey of the EPRI Global Change, Climate Risk, and Target Setting research advisors, which identifies a pressing practitioner need for technical guidance. It further details current data limitations, discusses several key implications of recent North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) standards, and proposes robust extreme temperature event definitions to strengthen system planning.
Authors Erik Smith