Climate Change: How Heatwaves are Affecting Power Grids

“It’s encouraging to see clean energy’s share of the electricity mix continuing to rise, but this needs to happen at a much faster rate to meet international energy and climate goals. 

“At the same time, it’s crucial to expand and reinforce grids to provide citizens with secure and reliable electricity supply – and to implement higher energy efficiency standards to reduce the impacts of increased cooling demand on power systems.”

Electricity demand

Switching on a fan, air conditioner or cooling device uses electricity. 

On hot days when many people do this at once, demand can spike and put the grid at risk of overloads and blackouts. 

Thinktank Ember says that across China, the United States and India in 2024, heatwaves added tens of terawatt-hours to electricity demand during critical summer months.

It says that 37% of the increase in electricity demand in the US from April to September 2024, compared to the same period in 2023, was due to higher air cooling needs.

This led to an increase in coal and gas electricity generation to meet the higher demand. 

“The solution is twofold: scale up efficient AC adoption to cut costs and ease peak demand, and invest in clean, flexible power to keep grids resilient as extreme weather intensifies,” said Kostantsa Rangelova, ‍Global Electricity Analyst at Ember.