The impact of extreme heat to the power grid

AccuWeather

Valerie Colletti of Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) joins the AccuWeather Network on how the electric power grid is impacted by the upcoming heat wave and what steps are being taken to prepare.

Transcript

00:00Joining us now is Valerie Colletti, Senior Vice President of Distribution Operations at ComEd,

00:05here to share how the electric grid is being ready for what may be the most intense heat wave

00:11Chicago has experienced in years. With air conditioners expected to run at full capacity

00:16and heated and accurate temperatures soaring here, ComEd has a key guidance for staying

00:22safe and managing energy use wisely. Valerie, thanks so much for joining us.

00:27Thank you for having me. Good morning. Good morning. How has ComEd prepared its

00:31infrastructure ahead of this prolonged dangerous heat wave? Well, fortunately, our grid is performing

00:37well, as expected, and we're not seeing any significant impacts from the weather. And

00:43trust me, that doesn't happen by accident. We really begin for preparing for weather like this

00:48well in advance. We conduct rigorous load forecasting along with emergency response drills. We want to

00:56make sure we're ready for these high demand scenarios. We also make sure supplies are very important. We

01:03have mobile trailers that we use to respond to outages. We make sure they're stocked. We make

01:09sure we have supply chain readiness, that we have all of our critical inventory. One thing that we also

01:16do to prepare that's really important is proactive inspections and repairs before summer even begins

01:21to make sure all of our equipment is in working order so that when we see things like air conditioning load

01:27increases that our system can respond and we can boost or stabilize that voltage across our feeders.

01:34Lastly, we've also increased our staffing. That's very important as well to make sure we have our field

01:41workforce ready to go, that we're monitoring the system, and that any outages that do occur, we can restore

01:47our customers quickly and safely. So in summary, we're prepared. And what kind of strain does multi-day

01:55stretch of 90 to 100 degree heat and also temperatures at night in the upper 70s and lower 80s

02:02place on the power grid? Well, when we're in this type of extreme heat, we're closely monitoring the

02:10system. We have to make sure all of our equipment is performing efficiently and reliably. And from our

02:16experience in these multi-day extreme heat events, we know to expect increased demand, electricity

02:23demand, really around more use of air conditioning and other cooling systems. So again, we're monitoring

02:29the weather. We make sure we have adequate staffing. And we also implement heat stress prevention plans

02:35to maintain grid reliability, protect our infrastructure, and also our field workforce.

02:42What's your message to customers facing these extreme heat conditions?

02:46Well, first of all, we want our customers to know that we're here for them. Our investments that

02:52we've made in the grid have delivered clearly more reliability and more resiliency. Since really

02:59going back to 2011, our smart grid upgrades have helped avoid over 24.7 million outages and improved

03:08reliability by 57%. And that's a big deal because we recognize that any outage has an impact on our

03:16customers, especially when we're in heat like this. So during the heat, again, we're monitoring the

03:21system around the clock. We're ready to respond to be there for our customers as needed. And we also

03:27know with this increased energy and usage due to the extreme heat, there may be customers that are

03:33concerned about their energy costs. We care about that as well. ComEd has award-winning energy efficiency

03:39programs and financial assistance options. And customers can get that at ComEd.com backslash

03:45bill support. That's important as well. And with Intensi becoming more frequent, how is ComEd

03:52adapting for long-term resilience? Well, we've been investing in our system for the last 10 to 15 years

04:00to make it more reliable, more resilient. We've put in advanced technology like distribution automation.

04:07You may hear those called smart switches, and they really help us reroute power in our trouble areas.

04:15Last summer, distribution automation avoided 986,000 customer interruptions. That's huge. We also

04:23collaborate with Argonne National Lab and the Electrical Power Research Institute. They're known as EPRI,

04:29to do models on mid-century climate scenarios and really identify resilient investments. So that's

04:38important as well. Lastly, some things we do to prepare is adapt our design standards to account

04:43for more frequent, intense weather events like the heat wave that we're experiencing right now.

04:49Valerie Colletti, Senior Vice President of Distribution Operations at ComEd. Thanks again for

04:54joining us. You are full of knowledge, and we appreciate all the information this morning.

04:59Great. Thank you for having us. Stay safe. Thank you.

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