Lights Out? Storm Surge, Blackouts, and How Clean Energy Can Help

The document describes the methodology for assessing the exposure of power plants and substations to flooding under a Category 3 hurricane scenario across five U.S. coastal regions. It utilizes the National Climate Assessment's Intermediate-High sea level rise scenario and the SLOSH model for storm surge, projecting risks through 2070. The analysis identifies a growing number of 'exposed' facilities, particularly in the Central Gulf Coast and Southeastern Florida, while noting limitations such as the exclusion of small distribution-level substations and the potential for local flood protection measures to mitigate risk.

• The analysis identifies a general increase in the number of electricity infrastructure components potentially exposed to flooding from a Category 3 hurricane between 2012 and 2070 across all five studied regions.
• In the Central Gulf Coast, a significant portion of infrastructure is located within leveed areas, though the number of exposed substations outside these areas is projected to rise from 80 in 2012 to 99 by 2070.
• The study uses the 'Intermediate-High' scenario from the U.S. National Climate Assessment, which assumes that ice loss will dominate total sea level rise throughout the 21st century.
• The analysis is limited by a binary 'exposed' or 'unexposed' label based on point coordinates, which does not account for whether equipment is elevated or protected by local utility measures.

APA

Union of Concerned Scientists (2015). Lights Out? Storm Surge, Blackouts, and How Clean Energy Can Help. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/attach/2015/10/lights-out-technical-appendix.pdf

Chicago

Union of Concerned Scientists. Lights Out? Storm Surge, Blackouts, and How Clean Energy Can Help. 2015. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/attach/2015/10/lights-out-technical-appendix.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Union of Concerned Scientists |title=Lights Out? Storm Surge, Blackouts, and How Clean Energy Can Help |date=October 2015 |url=https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/attach/2015/10/lights-out-technical-appendix.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{unionofconcernedscientists2015lights, author = {{Union of Concerned Scientists}}, title = {{Lights Out? Storm Surge, Blackouts, and How Clean Energy Can Help}}, institution = {Union of Concerned Scientists}, year = {2015}, month = oct, url = {https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/attach/2015/10/lights-out-technical-appendix.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }