Extreme weather, climate-related events and environmental disasters are growing in frequency and becoming more costly for business, governments, and consumers. When the lights go out due to severe storms, flooding, wildfires or worse, it’s energy networks that are often most at risk.
Extreme weather conditions have doubled power outages in the US over the past 20 years, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. It estimates that extreme weather events cost businesses around $150 billion per year, with power outages a significant part of these costs, shutting down operations and even large parts of the country for days at a time. More extreme temperatures are also pushing the power grid to its maximum.
Last year’s 4 July weekend saw some of the hottest days on record in the US, while parts of southern Europe and north Africa were hit by record-breaking April temperatures, made worse by droughts and wildfires.
In the UK, we are seeing similar patterns. Utility Week’s 2023 UK utilities risk report published in association with Marsh highlights the growing concerns of water and energy companies, with the risk of extreme and unpredictable weather surpassing cybersecurity threats for the first time. This follows a period of record-breaking storms, flooding and heatwaves pushing infrastructure and network resilience to the brink.
No longer fit for purpose
It’s something we can longer ignore. We now live in a world of changing climate and weather extremes that are having a major impact on our systems, while our grid infrastructure is no longer fit for purpose thanks to outdated technology, in many cases, and under-investment in communications networks.
Understanding and being able to source the location of power outages is vital for emergency maintenance teams when problems occur. It means utilities can quickly identify problems and act, whether that’s making sure power can be restored or redirected, if necessary, to help minimise disruption in service delivery.
The loss of vital communications and information is a real possibility if a storm or flood damages the network infrastructure in the case of cellular networks.
As a viable use case for wireless mesh networking technology, outage management enables utilities to work out where problems are with a much greater degree of accuracy and level of granularity. This then enables them to reroute power if a tree has fallen on a cable, for example, by disconnecting that part of the network, and then reconnecting the power through a different circuit.
Improving outage recovery times
With the number of extreme weather events increasing, it’s no surpsise that utilities are starting to invest in smart technologies. These include advanced weather prediction tools in response to power outages caused by extreme weather and disasters.
Published earlier this year, our research among senior professionals from US utility companies shows they are looking to boost network resilience with the use of IoT and smart technologies and tools.
The results are not unique to US companies. We would expect to see the same attitudes elsewhere with respondents adopting new approaches to new problems – to help mitigate outages and improve recovery times, while also looking at ways to control rising costs.
What’s clear is the need to build extreme weather events and other disasters related to climate change into the risk profile of any utility company regardless of region.
While advanced weather prediction tools topped the list of initiatives to bolster network resilience, our research showed there is also a growing focus on renewable energy integration and grid modernisation. IoT devices can facilitate the integration of renewable energy sources like wind and solar into the grid, while monitoring the energy generated, adjusting the flow in accordance with current conditions, and integrating fluctuating renewable energy assets.
Utilities are also looking to predictive maintenance analytics and enhanced communications to help improve outage recovery times, together with the use of drones and robotics to inspect assets. It’s perhaps no surprise that AI is also finding its way into a range of utilities applications. Our respondents recognise the opportunities to integrate AI as part of their network infrastructure, with use cases ranging from energy consumption forecasting to automated fault detection.
Final thoughts
The research confirmed an increasing reliance of utilities in their access to data from their network. Any new technologies and applications are only as good as the communications network infrastructure supporting them. It’s impossible to overstate the importance of reliable, robust and secure networking. By combining IoT with other smart technologies like grid sensing technology, utility companies can better respond and manage these extreme events, measure and cope with the outcomes.
For more on the Wi-SUN Alliance utilities research findings, see here.
- Digital Strategy
