Are wildfires a major threat to the electricity grid?
In short, yes. Brant said wildfires are both a cause and effect of problems with the electric grid.
Though they can burn power lines and cause outages, those lines can also start fires when there are strong winds and dry conditions, such as the Camp Fire in California in 2018. Utilities in the state now turn off the electric grid when there is high fire danger, a strategy that is also being discussed in Colorado as climate change makes large wildfires more common, he said.
Xcel Energy has proposed a plan to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission to strengthen the grid and protect it from wildfire damage.
Many utilities hope to use large batteries to store renewable energy. Are those systems vulnerable to climate threats?
Though overheating has caused battery explosions in hotter states like Arizona, that is less of a concern in Colorado, where the weather is milder, Brant said.
In the future, the main issue with batteries will be whether they can store enough power when renewables are not producing energy, said Will Toor, the executive director of the Colorado Energy Office. Right now, he said, batteries wouldn’t last through a stretch of cold and gray weather like what hit Colorado this month.
“When you get those multi-day weather events, under current battery technologies you probably need some other form of backup, or ultimately zero-carbon generation, in order to provide enough storage,” Toor said.
Could “microgrids” help?
Experts say microgrids installed around essential services, such as hospitals or emergency operation centers, could be “islands” amid otherwise dysfunctional grids.
“You can imagine a world where you would have significant on-site solar, significant battery storage, and an ability to operate those critical facilities even during periods when the grid was down,” Toor said. “I think we will see a substantial move towards microgrids, especially for those kinds of critical facilities.”
