Compound Climate and Infrastructure Events: How Electrical Grid Failure Alters Heat Wave Risk

Abstract

The potential for critical infrastructure failures during extreme weather events is rising. Major electrical grid failure or “blackout” events in the United States, those with a duration of at least 1 h and impacting 50,000 or more utility customers, increased by more than 60% over the most recent 5 year reporting period. When such blackout events coincide in time with heat wave conditions, population exposures to extreme heat both outside and within buildings can reach dangerously high levels as mechanical air conditioning systems become inoperable. Here, we combine the Weather Research and Forecasting regional climate model with an advanced building energy model to simulate building-interior temperatures in response to concurrent heat wave and blackout conditions for more than 2.8 million residents across Atlanta, Georgia; Detroit, Michigan; and Phoenix, Arizona. Study results find simulated compound heat wave and grid failure events of recent intensity and duration to expose between 68 and 100% of the urban population to an elevated risk of heat exhaustion and/or heat stroke.

Increasing Heat‐Stress Inequality in a Warming Climate

“…We also documented increasing geographical scales of contiguous heatwaves across continents over the last four decades. Such widespread heatwaves can reach or surpass the limits of the built infrastructure (Stone et al., 2021), often resulting in regional resource inadequacies to provide electricity access due to energy demands exceeding supplies (Larcom et al., 2019; Stone et al., 2021). An example of such an event occurred on 14 and 15 August, 2020 in California where 0.5 million homes and businesses lost power during an intense, widespread heat event across the American West that overwhelmed the electric grid (California, 2021).…”

Measuring the impacts of a real-world neighborhood-scale cool pavement deployment on albedo and temperatures in Los Angeles

“…The UHI is primarily caused by (a) urban materials that absorb and retain heat, (b) urban geometries that trap radiation in the urban canopy, (c) anthropogenic waste heat, and (d) the replacement of natural vegetation with impervious surfaces [1][2][3]. Previous studies have discussed the impacts of the UHI on increased energy demand [7][8][9][10], increased risk of critical infrastructure failure [11], deterioration of air quality [12], and increased risk of heatrelated illness and mortality [13,14]. In the United States, extreme heat is the leading weather-related cause of mortality [15].…”

Resilience and Equity in a Time of Crises: Investing in Public Urban Greenspace Is Now More Essential Than Ever in the US and Beyond

“…Increases in summer temperatures have also been associated with increased mortality risk among older people with chronic diseases, particularly CVD [171]. Urban areas with electrical grid failures during times of extreme heat increasingly expose large populations to dangerously hot environments [172].…”