Storm Domingos batters French grid following Ciarán’s whiplash
Following the passage of storm Ciarán, which caused outages for millions of French homes, storm Domingos has hit the country, leaving more without power across the country’s already-battered regions.
According to statements from French distribution system operator Enedis, most homes have had their power restored from storm Ciarán, although more restoration work is needed with storm Domingos exacting a separate toll.
In response to Ciarán, Enedis triggered its emergency response Rapid Electricity Intervention Force (FIRE) after the storm caused extensive damage to the public electricity distribution network in the north-west quarter of the country, including trees falling on power lines, pylons and cables torn out.
Wind gusts, stated the DSO, were recorded at more than 170km/h with more than 1.2 million customers without electricity on Thursday.
As of 6 November, more than 92% of homes have recovered from Ciarán with 93,000 homes still needing to be replenished, including 81,000 in Brittany and 11,000 in Normandy.
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The Domingos storm, which crossed the West of France during the night from Saturday to Sunday has now caused additional outages, with 247,000 French households without electricity on Sunday afternoon due to the combined effect of the storms.
As of Monday morning, 79% of homes have been restored with 33,000 remaining without power.
According to the Washington Post, Ciarán’s record-breaking winds battered western Europe from Thursday, proving to be the worst storm since 1987 for parts of Western Europe, with the powerful Domingos following days after.
According to Reuters, storm Ciaran was driven by a powerful jet stream that swept in from the Atlantic, unleashing heavy rain and fierce winds that have caused flooding in several western European countries.
Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.