Energy professionals must manage numerous responsibilities in 2025, including establishing climate resilience. While climate change is often associated with hurricanes and wildfires, it is also considered a contributor to more intense winter storms.
Already in 2025, parts of the United States have experienced extreme winter storms. Relying on conventional energy equipment may exacerbate outages and societal disruptions. Greater energy security must be a priority.
What is a microgrid’s role in this, and how will the industry implement them to defend communities?
U.S. Winter Storm Projections in 2025
Some are predicting 2025 winter storms to be gentler than previous years. Heavy snowfall and rains from last year’s featured locations may shift to new places. However, the predicted calmness of these storms cannot cause complacency in energy security rollouts.
Additionally, while we can try to forecast future storms and weather conditions, long-term forecasts are flawed. The first winter storms of the year are already exceeding expectations, including winter storm Cora in the southern U.S. Many typically warmer regions are getting hit with unprecedented snowfall this early in the year, with upward of 8 inches in regions where this behavior is atypical.
Temperatures are also hitting all-time lows, harming pipes and freezing buildings. Professionals must remain dedicated to energy security to protect the 62 million people who are still in danger because of this year’s winter weather.
The Impact of Winter Storms and Extreme Temperatures on Buildings
Winter storms can cause structural damage. For example, pipes can burst as a result of freezing water, while freezing temperatures can cause a metal floor to ice over. However, one of the most significant dangers of winter storms involves energy storage and power.
How Winter Storms Impact Energy Storage and Power
The following issues can cause buildings to lose power during winter storms.
Damage to Power Lines
Heavy winds can knock over trees or bring down telephone poles, damaging power lines. Snow and ice can also weigh down tree branches and cause them to fall into power lines.
Additionally, while they’re much more protected than aboveground power lines, underground power lines are also susceptible to damage during winter. Cold temperatures can cause the ground to freeze, putting pressure on the cables. Underground power lines are also susceptible to damage from flooding, which may occur as snow melts.
Impact on Solar Panels
Though it may seem illogical, photovoltaic (PV) modules work more effectively in cold weather. Temperatures exceeding 77 degrees Fahrenheit cause a decrease in voltage.
However, snow and ice are a different story. While snow typically melts off solar panels or is blown off by the wind, accumulated snow can warp or break PV modules. It can also block sunlight from reaching the PV modules, reducing power production. Ice formation can also overstrain certain components.
Damage to Wind Turbines
While not necessarily prone to damage from extreme cold — international standards require wind turbines to operate at temperatures as low as minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit — heavy ice can also harm unprepared wind turbines.
For example, during the record-setting cold weather months in Texas in 2021, some turbines iced over. Luckily, weatherization techniques like heaters to melt ice can help.
Overreliance on the Grid
The start of 2025 brought a deep freeze to the Eastern United States. Bloomberg reports that the PJM Interconnection grid, which stretches from Illinois to Washington, D.C., broke the 2015 record for winter energy consumption, reaching 145 gigawatts. On the morning of January 22, power prices at the company’s West Hub were as high as $742.91 a megawatt-hour.
As more people turn up the heat to combat these freezing temperatures, the grid will be under more pressure.
Impact on Battery Energy Storage Systems
Battery systems are sensitive to extreme cold temperatures. However, keeping the battery in a location away from the elements, such as in a garage or insulated building, can help maintain efficiency and maximize performance during winter in states prone to heavy snowfall or extreme cold.
Microgrids and the Security They Provide
Microgrids can help improve energy security during severe winter weather.
What Is a Microgrid, and How Are They Used?
Microgrids are a group of interconnected loads and distributed energy resources (DERs) that allow buildings or communities to generate their own power independently of the main power grid. They’re especially beneficial for hospitals, neighborhoods in remote areas, emergency response facilities, military bases, data centers and other buildings where reliable power is a necessity.
Microgrids can draw power from the main grid and disconnect to operate independently from it. There are single-customer microgrids and community-scale microgrids to help communities regain power after natural disasters like hurricanes.
How Do They Form Climate Resilience?
Microgrids and DERs are essential resources during winter storms when blackouts are prevalent and critical transmission infrastructure can be destroyed. Instead of thousands of households losing power simultaneously, a microgrid keeps a neighborhood lit and resilient despite environmental stressors.
They can also keep essential operations alive, no matter what it looks like outside. Hospitals, emergency response teams, food outlets and financial institutions can work without disruptions if they have microgrids and backup systems adding another layer of defense. This allows communities to serve resident needs without extreme delays. The immediate, uninterrupted attention could save countless lives and reduce economic duress.
According to the National Centers for Environmental Information, winter storms caused around $104.2 billion in damage from 1980 to 2024. Communities could slash recovery costs by preventing them in the first place. Microgrids allow essential services to continue functioning amid outages, mitigating overall damage.
This would allow more money to go toward the rapid restoration of essential buildings and homes while providing community resources to people who are going without food, water and medical attention.
The Winter Warning
Developing climate resilience demands that communities establish energy independence from the main power systems. Microgrids and supplementary technologies, like battery storage, are extremely beneficial.
While these seem like a localized solution when national attentiveness is necessary, the culmination of many microgrid projects will create resiliency over time. Energy experts must advocate for these installations to stand against the winter unknowns of 2025 and beyond
