Edison International warns of California’s increasing need to modernize infrastructure, collaboration to face climate change

The demands of climate change are growing, and according to a new white paper from Edison International, meeting these demands in California urgently requires the modernization of critical power infrastructure and greater collaboration between utilities, regulators, and stakeholders.

According to “Adapting for Tomorrow: Powering a Resilient Future,” which includes findings from Southern California Edison’s (SCE) Climate Adaptation Vulnerability Assessment (CAVA), by 2050, wildfires could devastate services for large amounts of customers for a long time while rising sea levels could flood electrical facilities and extreme temperatures cut electrical capacity. This would demand changes to the grid to cope, but Edison International noted that doing so while transitioning to a clean economy requires new planning processes and frameworks across all infrastructure.

“It is crucial to provide support to the most disadvantaged, climate vulnerable communities through awareness and the development of climate adaptation plans,” Pedro Pizarro, president and CEO of Edison International, said. “Southern California Edison (SCE) is preparing the electrical grid to safely power communities and meet their energy needs now and in the future. It is imperative that the public, industry, and community partners join SCE to modernize critical infrastructure and adapt to the changing climate.”

In contrast, less than half of California’s counties and only a quarter of cities within SCE’s service area currently have climate adaptation and resilience plans. Inaction, Edison International warned, would have even worse results than the costs of action, with potentially crippling damage from droughts, heatwaves, wildfires, flooding, and more.

“There are many ways we must act with more urgency to incorporate projected climate conditions into our electric system planning to ensure a resilient decarbonized grid,” said Erica Bowman, director of the Edison International CEO’s Office and principal author of “Adapting for Tomorrow” and last year’s Edison policy paper, “Mind the Gap,” said. “Just one example among many is planning for increased extreme temperatures and heatwaves. During these events, electric loads will increase due to customer cooling needs, and transmission line capacity may need to be derated 10%-20% due to operating limits. We need to anticipate these types of compounding impacts and design our system accordingly.”