Power cuts often cluster during heatwaves, and it's not a coincidence.
Everyone switches on cooling
Fans, coolers and air conditioners push electricity demand to its highest levels of the year.
Heat reduces capacity
Hot power lines can carry less current safely, and transformers work less efficiently when they're already hot.
Local equipment gives out
Many outages are local: an overloaded transformer in one neighbourhood can fail while the wider grid is fine.
What helps
Upgrading local equipment, storage and shifting some use away from peak hours all reduce the strain.
Series · Part 4 of 5Climate Basics
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