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Consequences of Climate Change for Southeast Power Utilities
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Figure: Comparison of normalized costs of energy in 2050 in four scenarios of planning/not planning for climate change and including/not including climate change effects on operations. The values are the average of the simulations using data from 20 different global climate models (GCMs). Error bars represent the 90% uncertainty range of each component over the 20 GCM simulations.
A new study co-authored by Michael Craig of the U-M School for Environment and Sustainability and Paulina Jaramillo of Carnegie Mellon University focuses on the consequences of climate change for Southeast power utilities. The study seeks to answer two questions: (1) If a utility does not plan for climate change, how much could costs and lost load (or blackouts) increase?, and (2) If a utility does plan for climate change but climate change does not occur, how much could costs increase? They found that not planning for climate change results in significantly greater costs and lost load than planning for climate change (see figure above), which underscores the value of planning for climate change now.
Read the study: Climate-Induced Tradeoffs in Planning and Operating Costs of a Regional Electricity System