“Moderate” Is the New “Extreme”: Weather’s Impact on Growing Renewable Grid Operations [Video]

Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!

How Shifting Our Perception of Extreme Weather Can Aid Planning for a Reliable Wind- and Solar-Rich Power System

From severe storms to recent unprecedented cold and heat waves, extreme weather events are impacting electric utilities, grid operators, and ultimately customers like never before. At the same time, the energy sources that power the grid are evolving, integrating higher percentages of renewable sources.

This evolution in both weather and the power grid is raising new questions about the intersection between extreme weather and the electric grid—and how to maintain and enhance grid reliability as the share of weather-driven renewable energy increases. In a first-of-its-kind study, analysts from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Sharply Focused modeled scenarios to understand the answers to these questions and change the way we define “extreme weather.”

“Our study investigated two questions,” said Marty Schwarz, NREL power systems engineer …