As Extreme Winter Weather Hits, Could America’s Power Grid Face a Perfect Storm?
Winter energy demand is like a crowd surging toward a narrow door— if there aren’t enough exits (supply), movement becomes dangerous. Data centers are like adding more shoppers into that crowd— but not just a few shoppers, it’s busloads, and at the exact moment the doors are narrowing. Without wider aisles and freedom of movement in the form of new clean energy supply and storage, congestion becomes inevitable.
With a cold snap moving across the country, and electricity demand continuing to climb faster than new supply, I am alarmed that some of the most affordable and flexible resources, like solar, remain underutilized or slowed by policy barriers— creating the risk of outages when extreme weather hits.
Solar and storage are like adding side doors and extra hallways to that crowded room— giving room to move without jamming the system. These solutions are critical, because when demand grows this fast, the question isn’t whether the grid feels the strain— it’s who pays for it.
Winter Stresses the Grid
Right now, across the country, heaters are kicking on, and ovens are running longer. When a cold snap takes hold, demand can surge like a sleeper-wave catching beachgoers unaware— much faster than the grid can respond.
During historic winter events— like the deep freeze in Texas in 2021 or prolonged cold spells across the Midwest and Northeast— demand surged rapidly while existing combustion technologies struggled to keep up.
These failures aren’t abstract. They mean homes exposed to sub-freezing temperatures, families trying to stay warm with space heaters or ovens, and parents worrying in the dark about vulnerable infants or elderly. Hospitals and nursing homes forced to rely on creaky backup generators. Workers missing shifts. In the most severe cases, prolonged outages during extreme cold have contributed to serious illness and loss of life, particularly among seniors, people with medical needs, and households already struggling to afford energy.
These events also leave financial scars, turning weather emergencies into a long-term economic setback. Emergency power purchases drive up utility costs, repairs strain local budgets, and households face higher bills long after the power comes back on.
Demand Is Growing Faster Than Supply
Making matters more challenging, demand is growing faster than supply. Data centers now run 24/7 and pull enormous amounts of electricity just to keep servers humming. In fact, peak electricity demand has risen by about 20 gigawatts (roughly 2.5%) compared to last winter, while additions to supply were less than half that. That means demand is racing ahead of the grid’s ability to add new power sources. Without the build-out of solar plus storage, utilities stretch aging infrastructure or lean harder on fossil fuel plants that are already vulnerable during extreme weather. That imbalance increases both reliability risks and costs for everyday consumers. We’re already seeing that rapid data center growth could increase the risk of shortages during a harsh winter.
Preparing for extreme conditions means building a grid that can bend without breaking: one that doesn’t rely too heavily on a single fuel source, that has enough flexibility to respond quickly, and that prioritizes keeping people safe when the weather pushes the system to its limits.
Solar is Critical to a Reliable Energy System
Solar paired with batteries is one of the most practical reliability tools available today. Integrating local solar and other existing community-based power solutions is like planting many modern, small, sturdy power stations across the country instead of relying on a few massive, aging ones. Even if one area is hit hard by weather, others keep producing power. Batteries store that energy so it’s available when demand spikes or traditional plants fall short.
But how has the Federal administration helped communities prepare for what they themselves have declared an energy crisis? By stripping them of funding to deploy optimal solutions. In 2025, the administration pulled the rug out from under one of the biggest federal investments in solar for low- and moderate-income communities at exactly the moment we needed it most.
With one hand, the administration declared a “crisis,” and with the other, it stripped communities of the tools to actually fix the problem.
Ensuring reliability in the teeth of winter and demand growth doesn’t require choosing between progress and stability. Now is the time to support smart clean energy policies that make the grid stronger – especially as electricity use and extreme weather increase dramatically. Together, we can keep the lights on, but only if decision makers act.