Since 2021, four severe Arctic storms had descended to cover much of North America. Families play in the snow at Lincoln Park on Capitol Hill in Washington DC in January 2022. Photo / Jabin Botsford, The Washington Post
The massive winter storm sweeping a large swathe of the United States, from the Southwest to the Mid-Atlantic, has curtailed travel, cancelled school and civic gatherings, and imposed frigid temperatures on tens of millions of Americans.
Another worry is looming for those in the path of the storm: Power outages and the very human dangers that come with them.
More than 160,000 people were already without power as of yesterday, with about 50,000 of them in Texas and Louisiana, where power grids have struggled with freezing temperatures in recent years.
Other winter tempests in recent years have laid bare the frailties that exist
Even as elected officials and energy companies insist they are better prepared than ever for such challenges, the storm presents another stiff test.
“I think this has the potential to rank up as one of the more consequential storms we’ve seen over the last five or six years,” said Jim Robb, president of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC).
The blast of winter weather, which began delivering snow and ice on Saturday across the Rockies and Plains, has been barrelling through the Midwest, Southeast and up the East Coast. Some areas of central states had 20cm of snow by last night.
Forecasters warned that accumulation of ice - a reality predicted throughout much of the South - could weigh down trees and overburden power lines, leaving residents across numerous states to endure the winter blast without electricity.
“Significant ice accumulation on power lines and tree limbs may cause widespread and long-lasting power outages,” wrote the National Weather Service in Raleigh, North Carolina, echoing similar warnings in other places.
Freezing rain and ice present a more harrowing challenge to power companies than even heavy snow.
For starters, even a small amount of ice can weigh down nearby tree limbs and cause them to snap and fall onto electrical lines below.
Likewise, 13mm of ice can stress power lines to the breaking point. Ice also makes access more difficult for the utility crews trying to make repairs and restore power.
“Even a small layer of ice can translate to hundreds of pounds of added weight, and cause lines and trees to sag,” Georgia Power wrote in a note to residents.
“Tree limbs can easily begin to snap, and entire trees can be uprooted, leading to outages when they either come into contact with power lines, or in some cases, take poles down with them.”
The South is particularly at risk of outages because it doesn’t routinely face the type of fierce winter weather that will soon arrive.
“We don’t have the same level of requirements for tree clearing that a lot of northern states have,” said Alex Shattuck, director of grid transformation at the Energy Systems Integration Group (ESIG). “So a little bit of ice can cause a lot of damage.”
Shattuck spoke from his home in Austin, fresh off a grocery run to stock up for the week to come. He’d also gathered other provisions if the power goes out “A bunch of quilts and candles.”
In addition, many homes in Southern states aren’t built for deep, sustained cold weather, said Julia Matevosyan, chief engineer at ESIG.
“When it gets cold, then the heating becomes so inefficient, it actually draws more power than during warmer weather, and that stresses the system.”
Frigid temperatures will persist well into this week, including in areas of severe icing.
Duke Energy, which serves 4.7 million customers in the Carolinas, sent vegetation crews to trim tree limbs in advance of the storm to reduce outage risks, and had more than 18,000 workers from several states on call and ready to respond.
Utilities had also implored residents to do their own preparations, including charging all electronic devices, stocking up on nonperishable food, and seeking out safe and alternative ways to stay warm should power fail.
While downed lines are the more common and localised way people can lose power, cold weather can also cause immense strain on grids and central power sources.
Many Southern states share power resources with one another, which means the entire network can face unusual strain if they all get hit at the same time.
In Texas, a winter storm in 2021 crippled the electricity grid, knocked out power to millions of residents and caused at least 246 deaths, making it one of the worst disasters in the Lone Star State’s history.
In a recent analysis of winter electricity reliability across North America, NERC noted that almost every region of the country has adequate resources to deal with typical peak-load conditions.
“However, more extreme winter conditions extending over a wide area could result in electricity supply shortfalls,” the organisation wrote, adding that prolonged cold snaps could drive sharp increases in demand and threaten reliability.
The report noted that since 2021, four severe Arctic storms had descended to cover much of North America, causing regional demand for electricity and heating fuel to soar, and exposing infrastructure in usually temperate areas to freezing conditions.
In addition, the organisation wrote, “winter electricity demand is rising at the fastest rate in recent years, particularly in areas where data centre development is occurring.”
Robb said
utilities all along the path of storm are better prepared than they were a few years ago. Many areas have added additional capacity, including significant amounts of solar and wind energy, although those tend not to bolster output as much during harsh winter conditions.
The experience of recent years, including a paralysing polar vortex in 2014, a 2022 winter storm that contributed to power outages for millions over the holiday season and the deadly Texas freeze of 2023 have all led to more resilience in the system.
- Ben Noll and Shannon Osaka contributed to this report.
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