Eversource Engineers Solve Unique Climate Challenge to Protect the Heartbeat of Our Electric System
Feb 21, 2024
With the frequency, unpredictability and severity of extreme weather including thunderstorms increasing, our team is working every day to fortify our electric system to withstand the worst of climate change. In addition to impacts like drought-stressed trees falling onto our power lines and intense heat waves straining the grid, our substations have been affected by an increase in the occurrence of lightning incidents that were previously a “worst-case” scenario with a 100-year probability. After lightning strikes caused surges that damaged equipment in substations in Western Massachusetts and South Boston within a three-year period, we assembled a team of engineers, supported by substation operating mechanics who respond to damage during storms, to assess the equipment and control systems at all the approximately 600 substations across our service territory in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.