As the U.S. faces more severe hurricanes, the robustness of the country’s energy infrastructure is once again being called into question. During extreme weather events, residents across the most affected regions are often plunged into darkness, uncertain when their electricity will return. Years of underinvestment in the U.S. transmission infrastructure, as well as the worsening of weather events, puts vulnerable communities across the country at risk, but just how is this risk being mitigated for the future?
The U.S. Under Threat of Severe Weather
The southeast coastal region of the U.S. has long been under threat of tropical storms and hurricanes between June and November each year. However, in recent years, the intensity of these weather events has worsened. The average number of hurricanes hitting the U.S. each year has not increased, however many of these storms are now more intense, with higher wind speeds, heavier rainfall, and a more severe storm surge.
The severity of the storms has worsened as the world has got hotter, with record hot water temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico contributing to the strengthening of recent hurricanes. Hurricane Milton, which made landfall in Florida this week, was the fifth hurricane to hit the U.S. this year. As it was heading towards the mainland, Milton started to pull air toward its center and took energy from the warm ocean. On Monday, when Milton was spinning across the Gulf, scientists announced that the central pressure within its core dropped at rates that were “insane”.
Milton’s wind speeds rose by 92 mph within around 24 hours, which is much faster than the increase of 35 mph in 24 hours that scientists consider as rapid intensification. Its winds increased to exceed 175 mph, which is unprecedented for an October storm. Jonathan Lin, an atmospheric scientist at Cornell University, saidMilton was “one of the most rapidly intensifying hurricanes we’ve ever seen in the Atlantic.”
Luckily Milton’s intensity lessened, to hit Florida as a category 3 hurricane, despite still causing major damage to the region and putting millions of lives under threat. However, as the Earth continues to get warmer, it is likely that these types of hurricanes will become more common, and could ultimately wipe out vulnerable towns and cities.
U.S. Energy Infrastructure Resilience
Severe storms and soaring temperatures have hit America’s energy infrastructure hard in recent years, with people in certain regions experiencing weeks with no gas or electricity. As utilities have raced to reconnect the power, they have been widely criticised for not adequately preparing the energy infrastructure in vulnerable regions for severe weather events.
Following Hurricane Helene in September, millions of residents in Georgia and North Carolina experienced power cuts. The U.S. energy company Duke Energy said it had restored power to 2.6 million customers in South and North Carolina since Helene, however around 97,000 homes and businesses were still without power around two weeks later. Milton has left around 3.2 million people in Florida without power, and the downed power lines and scattered debris will likely make it difficult to restore power quickly.
While utilities across the U.S. make extensive preparations for large storms, a recent report suggests that the risk of hurricane-induced power outages may rise by 50% in the coming decades in certain areas of the U.S., including Puerto Rico, because of climate change.
A Joined-Up Approach and Greater Funding Needed
In 2021, the Biden administration introduced the $2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), aimed at overhauling and upgrading U.S. infrastructure. The plan earmarked $100 billion in funding to update and modernize the electric grid to make it more reliable and resilient, particularly in the face of severe weather phenomena.
For years, communities, politicians, scientists, and energy experts have warned that the aging energy infrastructure across the U.S. would buckle under pressure. However, the BIL has helped to reassure people that plans for improvement are in motion.
Since the launch of the BIL, the Biden administration has carried out extensive studies on how best to deliver on its promise to improve the grid system nationwide. However, it has become clear that due to the immense size of the country and the complexities in state-level energy laws and regulations, the U.S. grid system is extremely fragmented, which makes it difficult to make comprehensive improvements to the entire system.
Despite ongoing criticism around the slow speed of modernization, the Biden administration has announced several investments aimed at improving resilience across the country. In August this year, the government announced a $2.2 billion investment from the BIL in the nation’s grid for eight projects across 18 states to protect against growing threats of extreme weather events, lower costs for communities, and catalyze additional grid capacity. This month, the Department of Energy announced an investment of $1.5 billion in four transmission projects that will improve grid reliability and resilience, relieve costly transmission congestion, and open access to affordable energy to millions of Americans across the country.
While the development of a comprehensive, modernized electricity grid system across the U.S. is extremely complex, significant steps have been taken towards making it happen over the last four years. In addition, the BIL provides billions in funding to overhaul the country’s transmission system. However, with the increase in the prevalence of more severe weather events, it will be important to invest heavily in energy infrastructure resilience in the country’s most vulnerable regions, to ensure that communities do not have to undergo undue suffering following already devastating natural disasters.
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