Climate-proof Grid: Embedding resilience into infrastructure planning

Climate change and extreme weather events such as heatwaves, wildfires and floods are increasingly having an impact on the electricity system. Addressing these impacts entails financial implications deriving from investments in preventive, mitigation or restorative measures to keep electricity systems in operation.

Embedding climate resilience into planning

In the context of infrastructure planning, ENTSO-E’s Cost-Benefit-Analysis (CBA) methodology is applied to provide grid operators cost-efficiency assessment.

To address the foreseen impacts of climate change and extreme weather events on electricity infrastructure, the Trans-European Networks for Energy (TEN-E) Regulation points that the European process of electricity infrastructure planning should adequately consider climate adaptation aspects.

In order to comply with this requirement, the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) is working to incorporate a new quantitative indicator for climate adaptation and resilience measures in its Cost-Benefit-Analysis (CBA) methodology.

The new indicator is aimed to be incorporated into the 5^th edition of the ENTSO-E’s CBA Methodology guideline, complementing other CBA indicators. RGI and ENTSO-E are collaborating to develop the framework that will guide the new indicator, including mapping of climate hazards and extreme weather events, and corresponding measures, to better assess the needed solutions.

Working together

To achieve this, partnerships between grid and energy system planners and climate modellers are needed to integrate climate and weather information into energy system planning, toward developing more resilient, climate-proof electricity grid.

Working together, RGI and ENTSO-E are developing a framework to guide a quantitative indicator for climate resilience measures in electricity grids. As a result, this will support European energy system planning via ENTSO-E’s CBA Methodology.