After a blisteringly cold week in Greater Manchester, an energy infrastructure expert has explained how freezing weather can lead to power outages. Taco Engelaar is the managing director at Neara, which provides infrastructure support to utilities.
And according to Engelaar, it’s not necessarily the cold weather itself which might directly cause power cuts. It’s actually the ways that people react to cold weather.
When it gets extremely cold you may want to reach for the thermostat and turn on the heating to keep things warmer inside. While normally this wouldn’t be a problem, when it gets very cold lots of people end up thinking the same thing.
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That means that you could have a large number of people all turning on their heating at the same time. This has a similar effect to everyone going to put the kettle on during the TV ad breaks – it creates a surge in demand on the network.
Engelaar said: “The snow and frosty temperatures we’re seeing this week could bring another hazard: power cuts. When millions of homes try to warm up at the same time, the grid experiences a surge that can test its capacity, resulting in bottlenecks that put our power supply under strain – possibly leading to power outages.”
But that wasn’t the only potential issue. The other is related to snowfall.
Manchester has seen snowfall and frost this week -Credit:Jason Roberts /Manchester Evening News
He explained: “Another risk is snowfall settling on tree branches, with the extra weight causing them to bow or snap. If these falling branches hit power lines or bring down poles, this can cause significant damage to our power supply. Likewise, ice or heavy frosts can place extra weight on power lines, causing them to snap, fall or short-circuit.
“Lack of visibility and treacherous conditions then make it hard for engineers on the ground to spot where repairs need to be made or even get to where they need to be, delaying the process of restoring power.”
He added: “Utilities are continually working hard to strengthen central infrastructure and prevent power loss during cold snaps. And new technologies such as AI and digital modelling are increasingly being deployed to predict where snow and ice is most likely to cause problems and help providers plan ahead.”