New report finds that increasingly severe weather is linked
to longer lasting power outages
(August 24, 2015) In
the most comprehensive analysis of electricity reliability trends in the United
States, researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and
Stanford University have found that, while, on average, the frequency of power
outages has not changed in recent years, the total number of minutes customers
are without power each year has been increasing over time.
The researchers pinpointed what utilities and their
regulators refer to as “major events,” or events generally related to severe
weather, as the principal driver for this trend. “This finding suggests that
increasingly severe weather events are linked to a 5-10% increase in the total
number of minutes customers are without power each year,” said Berkeley Lab
Research Scientist and Stanford PhD candidate, Peter Larsen, the lead author.
The researchers analyzed reports for a large cross-section
of utilities representing nearly 70 percent of U.S. electricity customers
spanning 13 years from 2000 to 2012. Their report, “Assessing Changes in the
Reliability of the U.S. Electric Power System,” is available here.