As the electrical grid gets smarter and the number of severe weather events increases, many may wonder about the reliability of the U.S. electrical power system. A group of researchers put together some hard numbers on the matter and concluded that many areas need improvement.


Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and Stanford University recently completed a comprehensive analysis of electricity reliability in the United States. “Assessing Changes in the Reliability of the U.S. Electric Power System” finds that the annual amount of time customers are without power has been increasing yearly. 


In the report’s abstract, the researchers refer to a number of “statistically significant” correlations, all of which point to a direct relationship between the increases in severe weather events and power interruptions. The numbers suggest the duration of power interruptions has gone up over time, and severe weather is the culprit.


“This finding suggests that increasingly severe weather events are linked to a 5–10 percent increase in the total number of minutes customers are without power each year,” said Peter Larsen, lead author of the analysis and LBNL research scientist, in a news release.


The researchers used up to 13 years of information for a large cross-section of U.S. utilities, representing 70 percent of U.S. electricity sales and customers. The report examines outages both large and small, and a clear trend begins to emerge when looking at the big picture of electrical reliability over the last decade and beyond.


“We hope the findings from the study will provide a more solid basis upon which to ground future private and public decisions on the long-term reliability of the U.S. electric power system,” said Joseph Eto, co-author and LBNL staff scientist


The entire analysis can be read at http://emp.lbl.gov/publications/assessing-changes-reliabi.