The first step toward being prepared is understanding why. So, to be better prepared to minimize disruption during a blackout, it’s important to understand the many reasons for power outages in the first place. As it turns out, there isn’t just one answer to “why do power outages happen?” But rather, it’s a whole slew of different things, depending on where you live and what time of year you’re talking about.
Any above-ground power line can be blown over or damaged in a storm with heavy winds. Trees falling on power lines during storms is a common cause of local power outages. Plus, various severe weather conditions can cause significant damage to power infrastructure. Power lines and substations destroyed by tornadoes can leave cities and towns without power for days or weeks. Those living on the East Coast know that tropical storms are substantial drivers of power disruptions. Hurricanes can topple power lines and flood substations, leading to extended outages. Many on the West Coast have gotten used to small-scale earthquakes as a matter of course in their regular lives. But more sizeable quakes can bring power lines down, significantly threaten the power infrastructure and leave residents with extended outages in the aftermath of the disturbance.
In the western U.S. and Canada, the regular occurrence of wildfires has caused local grid operators to take matters into their own hands. They use planned power shutoffs as a preventative measure during extreme heat and high wildfire risk to prevent sparks that could trigger wildfires.
It might seem comical at first read, but the impact that animals can have on power lines is truly no laughing matter. There’s a significant number of power outages caused by animal interference across the country each year. Animals that climb or land on equipment can inadvertently become conductors of electricity that might short transformers, trip circuit breakers, or cause a fire — all issues which could cause power outages.
Power outages can be caused by equipment failure when electrical equipment like transformers, circuit breakers, and generators break, wear out, or malfunction. This can happen for all sorts of reasons, including an aging infrastructure, accidents involving power lines, unpredictable manufacturing defects, and inadequate system maintenance.
Most of us know to call before we dig! But it doesn’t mean it always happens that way. Construction activities can inadvertently damage underground power lines, leading to outages that can take days to repair.
Cyber-attacks on power grids are a growing threat to our infrastructure. Hackers can remotely control systems to damage or disrupt equipment, such as switches in substations, which can disconnect power lines or plants from the grid. 1 This can lead to immediate loss of power. They can disrupt the flow of electricity or disable protective systems in digital substations, which can lead to line disconnections and a disruption in the flow of electricity. Domestic terrorist groups have also recently begun targeting substations; shooting transformers that are responsible for powering tens of thousands of homes. 2
In some instances, the reason for a power outage might just be age. Much of the U.S. power grid is in dire need of updates and as such, is prone to failures, especially under current energy demands. Generally, our grid is 60+ years old and was not built to serve the number of households, businesses and large cities we have now. It is projected that U.S. electricity use will continue to rise over the coming decades to reach 5,178 terawatt hours by 2050 - an increase of roughly 27 percent, relative to 2022. 3
The demands of modern lives aren’t reflected in our power grid. Today, we use 14 times the energy we did when the grid was new, in 1950.4 Across the United States, there are more electrical appliances in each home than ever before. In addition, we’re adding a growing reliance on electric vehicles, and environmental initiatives5 to move more home systems away from gas to electric. Our modern lives are placing an ever-higher demand on an outdated grid. As average temperatures continue to rise, more people are using more climate control in their homes. And while there’s an increasing emphasis on sourcing electricity from renewable sources that will help make the grid more resilient, that new infrastructure support will take years to catch up.
If you’re ready to invest in backup energy independence for your home, you might consider a home standby generator or a solar energy storage solution from Generac. We can help guide you to the right size and specifications to power up the things you need.
