Lights Out?

The report examines how rising sea levels and storm surges threaten critical electricity infrastructure, such as substations and power plants, in five major U.S. coastal regions. It finds that significant portions of the grid are already exposed to flooding, which can lead to widespread and prolonged power outages. The authors argue that current planning relies on outdated historical data and recommend a shift toward decentralized, resilient clean energy systems—including microgrids, energy storage, and combined heat and power plants—alongside infrastructure adaptation strategies like protection, accommodation, and retreat.

• A significant portion of electricity infrastructure serving over 70 million coastal residents is already exposed to flooding from severe storms, with the share of exposed substations ranging from 16 percent in southeastern Florida to nearly 70 percent in the central Gulf Coast.
• Sea level rise is projected to increase the number of exposed substations over time; for example, in southeastern Florida, the number of major substations exposed to a Category 3 storm could more than double by 2050 and triple by 2070.
• The U.S. electric grid is increasingly susceptible to failure due to age and poor condition, with weather-related events causing an increasing share of total transmission grid disturbances, rising from approximately one-quarter in 1992 to approximately three-quarters in 2011.
• Current electricity planning and flood protection policies are largely based on retrospective FEMA flood hazard maps that use historical data and do not incorporate future sea level rise, leaving long-lived infrastructure vulnerable.
• The report identifies three primary adaptation strategies for coastal infrastructure: protection (building defenses like seawalls), accommodation (modifying infrastructure, such as elevating substations), and retreat (relocating or retiring at-risk assets).
• Decentralized clean energy solutions—specifically renewable energy with energy storage, combined heat and power (CHP) plants, and microgrids—provide greater resilience than the centralized grid or traditional diesel backup generators, which failed in 50 to 60 percent of cases during Hurricane Sandy in New York.
• The cost of wind and solar power in the U.S. has declined by more than 60 percent over the past five years, making these resilient power systems more cost-effective for communities.
• The electric power sector was the largest single contributor to U.S. global warming emissions in 2013, representing nearly one-third of total emissions.

APA

McNamara, J., Clemmer, S., Dahl, K., & Spanger-Siegfried, E. (2015). Lights Out? Union of Concerned Scientists. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/attach/2015/10/lights-out-full-report.pdf

Chicago

McNamara, Julie, Steven Clemmer, Kristina Dahl, and Erika Spanger-Siegfried. Lights Out? Union of Concerned Scientists, 2015. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/attach/2015/10/lights-out-full-report.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=McNamara |first1=Julie |last2=Clemmer |first2=Steven |last3=Dahl |first3=Kristina |last4=Spanger-Siegfried |first4=Erika |title=Lights Out? |publisher=Union of Concerned Scientists |date=October 2015 |url=https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/attach/2015/10/lights-out-full-report.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{mcnamara2015lights, author = {McNamara, Julie and Clemmer, Steven and Dahl, Kristina and Spanger-Siegfried, Erika}, title = {{Lights Out?}}, institution = {Union of Concerned Scientists}, year = {2015}, month = oct, url = {https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/attach/2015/10/lights-out-full-report.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }