What's the best way to prevent outages during a heat wave?

Power outages aren't very predictable—but that's not necessarily the case when heat waves strike.

What we do know is that when the temperature gets hotter, electricity demand spike along with it, adding pressure to the electrical system. What we don't really know is when and where an outage will strike.

While this summer has been characterized by relatively mild weather, demand will rise this week as heat waves hit the continental U.S. Suffice it to say, utilities will be concerned about the heat's impact on reliability—so what's the best way to maintain reliability during a heat wave?

That's the question market research firm Zpryme has attempted to answer. Zpryme conducted a survey of 115 utility industry professionals on what the best ways to prevent heat wave-related power outages are and what the most important benefits of an advanced outage management system are. Utility Dive partnered with Zpryme to publish that data in the infographic below.

Here are the key findings from the survey:

When asked what the most effective way to prevent outages due to heat waves, 43% of respondents pointed to integrating a combination of technologies such as microgrids, energy storage and virtual power plants. 39% believed increased demand response participation from residential and commercial customers is the best way to prevent outages.
When asked what the top benefits of an advanced outage management are, 35% of respondents cited reduced outage durations due to faster restorations based upon outage location predictions. 21% cited reduced outage frequency due to use of outage statistics for making targeted reliability improvements.

Here are the results of the survey. Click here to see a larger version.

For more analysis and research on smart grid, sign up for Zpryme's Smart Grid Insights.

Would you like to see more utility and energy news like this in your inbox on a daily basis? Subscribe to our Utility Dive email newsletter! You may also want to read Utility Dive's look at whether a cyberattack could take out the U.S. power grid today.