Climate Change and the Vulnerability of Germany’s Power Sector to Heat and Drought
研究了德国电力部门在高温和干旱下的脆弱性，基于40年数据发现极端天气导致电厂停电频率增加，并量化了停电的经济损失和对消费者的影响。
The effects of extreme weather events and the resilience of the energy sector have become the subject of regulatory initiatives and ongoing research. We demonstrate the vulnerability of the German power sector to climate change and provide a qualitative and quantitative analysis of emerging risks from two types of extreme weather events: droughts and high temperatures. Our analysis is based on datasets covering temperature and drought data for the last 40 years. We present evidence of a higher frequency of power plant outages as a consequence of droughts and high temperatures. To characterize the vulnerability of the power sector we develop a capacity-adjusted drought index. The results are used to assess the monetary loss of power plant outages due to heatwaves and droughts and losses to consumers due to higher wholesale electricity prices and price volatility. An increasing frequency of such extreme weather events will aggravate the observed problem.