#power grid

"As temperatures across New England soared above 100 degrees Fahrenheit in recent weeks, solar panels and batteries helped keep air conditioners running while reducing fossil-fuel generation and likely saving consumers more than $20 million.

“Local solar, energy efficiency, and other clean energy resources helped make the power grid more reliable and more affordable for consumers,” said Jamie Dickerson, senior director of clean energy and climate programs at the Acadia Center, a regional nonprofit that analyzed clean energy’s financial benefits during the recent heat wave.

On June 24, [2025,] as temperatures in the Northeast hit their highest levels so far this year, demand on the New England grid approached maximum capacity, climbing even higher than forecast. Then, unexpected outages at power plants reduced available generation by more than 1 gigawatt. As pressure increased, grid operator ISO New England made sure the power kept flowing by reducing exports to other regions, arranging for imports from neighboring areas, and tapping into reserve resources.

At the same time, rooftop and other ​“behind-the-meter” solar panels throughout the region, plus Vermont’s network of thousands of batteries, supplied several gigawatts of needed power, reducing demand on an already-strained system and saving customers millions of dollars. It was a demonstration, supporters say, of the way clean energy and battery storage can make the grid less carbon-intensive and more resilient, adaptable, and affordable as climate change drives increased extreme weather events.

“As we see more extremes, the region still will need to pursue an even more robust and diverse fleet of clean energy resources,” Dickerson said. ​“The power grid was not built for climate change.”

On June 24, behind-the-meter solar made up as much as 22% of the power being used in New England at any given time, according to the Acadia Center. At 3:40 p.m., total demand peaked at 28.5 GW, of which 4.4 GW was met by solar installed by homeowners, businesses, and other institutions.

As wholesale power prices surpassed $1,000 per megawatt-hour, this avoided consumption from the grid saved consumers at least $8.2 million, according to the Acadia Center.

This estimate, however, is conservative, Dickerson said. He and his colleagues also did a more rigorous analysis accounting for the fact that solar suppresses wholesale energy prices by reducing overall demand on the system. By these calculations, the true savings for consumers actually topped $19 million, and even that seems low, Dickerson said.”

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Power Grid.

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SOME DISRUPTION SCENARIOS Since many people think of terrorism in terms of destruction, with as much loss of life as the terrorists can manage, we have to examine some possibilities of disruption. In the following scenarios, the terrorists are seeking to disrupt, not destroy, and avoid unnecessary destruction. There's little destruction, and almost no loss of life. ELECTRICAL NETWORK One spring evening, while there is still enough light to see, a lone individual fires at a high-tension power line with a rifle and severs the cable. A high wind wraps the falling cable around another on the pole, causing a flash and shorting out the line. A circuit breaker at the generating station trips, and another safety shuts down the generator automatically to prevent damage. The entire west side of the city, with one hundred thousand inhabitants, loses electrical power. The people coming home from work find their lights won't go on, and their air conditioning and television sets don't work. Those with battery-operated radios and TVs find they can't pick up all the stations, because many don't have emergency power supplies. Traffic lights all go out at once, during the rush hour, and the police don't have enough manpower to direct traffic at any but a few intersections. Even the freeways are stalled, as cars getting off are stopped by the traffic jams in the streets and the pileups back up onto the freeway. Police, fire stations, and hospitals all have emergency power and, after a short delay in starting up their emergency generators, can continue service.

A power company repair crew reaches the cut cable an hour after the power went off, and they repair the cable after an hour's work. The crew radios to the generating station that the cable is intact once more, and the staff at the station restarts the generators. Many people had neglected to turn off their appliances when the power went off, and the large demand causes a sudden surge, causing some circuit breakers to trip and shut off power to some sections. These are re-set, and the area has power once again. Meanwhile, the lone terrorist, having observed the progress of the situation, goes to an unmanned substation and fires a rifle bullet into a transformer, causing a short which results in the power failing again. Travel in the darkened streets is slow, and it takes him another hour to find a transformer at the top of a power pole, although he had earmarked it days before. He fires again, this time with no effect since the power is already off. When the repair crew replaces the damaged transformer and tests the line, they find there's another interruption from the second damaged transformer. Having had only one spare transformer in stock, they can't replace this one. Working through the night, the repair crew manages to isolate the area served by the second transformer from the network, and the power is on again, but not in the affected area. There is a delay of several days before a spare transformer is obtainable, and this area remains without power for that time. ...