{"id":23542,"date":"2026-07-31T21:17:02","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T16:17:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=23542"},"modified":"2026-07-31T21:17:02","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T16:17:02","slug":"how-extreme-weather-is-shaping-tomorrows-electric-grid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=23542","title":{"rendered":"How extreme weather is shaping tomorrow&#039;s electric grid"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/SIA4DycVmiQ4occxpNrY3gpXAUE=\/1366x768\/smart\/2024\/05\/23\/201929-1716495569914.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A series of dangerous <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/03\/wildfire-weather-firework-bans-july-4-weekend\" target=\"_self\">heat waves<\/a> this summer \u2014 including one that has left 17 states under an emergency federal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.energy.gov\/documents\/doe-order-no-202-26-37\" target=\"_blank\">order<\/a> \u2014 are putting the electric grid under an intense real-world stress test.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why it matters:<\/strong> Successive <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/06\/us-heat-wave-death-toll-july-2026\" target=\"_blank\">summer heat waves<\/a> are forcing utilities to rethink how they prepare the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/energy-climate\" target=\"_blank\">grid<\/a> for longer and more frequent periods of extreme stress.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<ul>\n<li>They&#8217;re raising questions about whether the electric grid can keep pace with surging demand from both <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/energy-climate\/climate-change\" target=\"_blank\">climate<\/a> change and the AI-driven electricity boom.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>State of play: <\/strong>Heat waves create a double challenge by increasing electricity demand for air-conditioning while reducing the efficiency of some power plants.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Zoom in: <\/strong>Texas has become one of the nation&#8217;s biggest proving grounds for grid modernization since the deadly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2024\/01\/20\/texas-power-grid-ercot-winter-freeze\" target=\"_blank\">2021 winter storm<\/a> exposed major weaknesses.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates most of the state&#8217;s grid, has since handled <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/local\/houston\/2026\/06\/12\/texas-power-grid-summer-demand-ercot-forecast\" target=\"_blank\">record seasonal demand<\/a> with the help of rapid battery expansion, mandatory weatherization, improved forecasting and expanded demand response.<\/li>\n<li>This month, the Public Utility Commission of Texas <a href=\"https:\/\/www.adminmonitor.com\/tx\/puct\/open_meeting\/20260709\/\" target=\"_blank\">approved<\/a> standards requiring large <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/02\/23\/battery-storage-utilities-data-centers\" target=\"_blank\">data centers<\/a> to disconnect in a controlled way during <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=F-Y9Bil6myA\" target=\"_blank\">grid<\/a> disturbances to help protect grid stability.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Yes, but: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/local\/houston\/2026\/06\/12\/texas-power-grid-summer-demand-ercot-forecast\" target=\"_blank\">ERCOT<\/a> told state lawmakers that statewide electric demand will reach about 175,000 megawatts by 2032 \u2014 almost double the record number that was set this month.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Between the lines:<\/strong> &#8220;Texas has been enormously proactive&#8221; in building transmission and adding <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/local\/dallas\/2024\/04\/04\/texas-wind-solar-renewable-energy-production\" target=\"_blank\">solar, wind<\/a> and batteries, retired UC Berkeley electrical engineering professor Sascha von Meier tells Axios.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>But rapid growth in electricity demand from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/technology\/automation-and-ai\" target=\"_blank\">AI<\/a> data centers is creating a new challenge, she says.<\/li>\n<li>Aidan Tuohy of the Electric Power Research Institute, a nonprofit energy research and development organization, says utilities are shifting from planning for a single peak hour to ensuring they have enough resources to remain reliable throughout prolonged periods of extreme heat.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;There isn&#8217;t one specific resource that&#8217;s coming up and saving the day or anything like that,&#8221; says Tuohy, EPRI&#8217;s director of research and development. &#8220;It&#8217;s a mix, and that diversity is actually a big part of the equation.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Zoom out: <\/strong>A growing number of U.S. utilities are linking home batteries, solar panels and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/energy-climate\/electric-vehicles\" target=\"_blank\">EV<\/a> chargers through software to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/pro\/climate-deals\/2024\/04\/11\/vpp-market-potential\" target=\"_blank\">virtual power plants<\/a> that can supply electricity or reduce demand during periods of grid stress.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;In California, we&#8217;ve had very positive experiences with battery storage and the way that it has performed during extreme peak demand days,&#8221; von Meier says.<\/li>\n<li>She points to a California Independent System Operator <a href=\"https:\/\/www.caiso.com\/documents\/2022-special-report-on-battery-storage-jul-7-2023.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">study<\/a> that called batteries &#8220;invaluable for reliability&#8221; after helping the state avoid rotating outages during a record 2022 heat wave.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Tuohy says utilities<\/strong> are increasingly looking at whether large <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2024\/10\/30\/ai-data-centers-grid-power-demand\" target=\"_blank\">data centers<\/a> can become flexible grid resources rather than simply new sources of demand.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Early results from an EPRI demonstration in Arizona showed a participating AI data center <a href=\"https:\/\/introl.com\/blog\/data-centers-grid-stabilizers-flexible-power-nvidia-epri-2026\" target=\"_blank\">reduced<\/a> electricity use by 25% over three hours during a simulated peak-demand event.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What we&#8217;re watching: <\/strong>Von Meier expects that five years from now, electric grids will become more agile and flexible, out of necessity.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;We may find it no longer realistic to accommodate unlimited demand at uniform reliability across entire interconnections at a reasonable price,&#8221; she says.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Instead, we will value efficiency, flexible backup options, including storage, self-generation and microgrids, and more active management of electric demand. All the key technologies exist today.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The bottom line: <\/strong>Reliability &#8220;is going to be won or lost,&#8221; Tuohy says. &#8220;It&#8217;s not the individual components. It&#8217;s how they all work together.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Go deeper: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/06\/13\/ai-power-electricity-data-centers-who-pays\" target=\"_blank\">The power decisions that could shape the next century<\/a><\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A series of dangerous heat waves this summer \u2014 including one that has left 17 states under an emergency federal order \u2014 are putting the electric grid under an intense real-world stress test. Why it matters: Successive summer heat waves are forcing utilities to rethink how they prepare the grid for longer and more frequent&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/SIA4DycVmiQ4occxpNrY3gpXAUE=\/1366x768\/smart\/2024\/05\/23\/201929-1716495569914.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}