Q&A: How El Niño conditions and extreme weather is impacting on utilities

AccuWeather meteorologists recently indicated that El Niño conditions are now established in the tropical Pacific, raising questions about how changing weather patterns could affect utilities and electricity consumers over the coming months.

To understand more about how weather is impacting utilities, Digital Journal spoke with Joe Matamoros, Chief Product Development Officer at S&C Electric Company. Matamoros considers extreme weather’s impact on utilities and grid resilience. Matamoros examines how managers of utilities are thinking about resilience investments, affordability and the role technologies like microgrids and battery storage are playing.

Digital Journal: How are utilities balancing investments in grid hardening and resilience with concerns about affordability?

Joe Matamoros: Utilities are increasingly focused on targeted investments that deliver measurable resilience improvements rather than relying solely on large-scale infrastructure replacement. Technologies that automate fault detection, isolate damaged sections of the system and restore service more quickly can often provide significant benefits without requiring a complete rebuild of the network. The conversation is shifting toward getting more value from existing assets while improving resilience. That approach helps utilities strengthen performance while remaining mindful of customer costs.

DJ: What evidence exists that grid modernization investments are improving reliability during extreme weather events?

Matamoros: Utilities that have deployed advanced automation and intelligent distribution technologies have shown an ability to limit the scope and duration of outages during major weather events. Florida offers a good example. In 2005, Hurricane Wilma, a Category 3 storm, left roughly 3 million customers without power for 18 days. Restoration efforts were prolonged due to the scale and spread of system damage. Recognizing this, the state’s largest utility made sustained investments in grid hardening, automation, and system intelligence across its distribution system.

In 2024, Florida experienced three landfalling hurricanes in a single season. By any objective measure, the 2024 hurricane season presented a more demanding test of the grid. Yet customer outcomes improved dramatically. Smart grid and automation technologies, along with physical infrastructure hardening, helped prevent nearly 900,000 customer outages across the three storms.

Restoration also progressed rapidly despite severe conditions. Power was essentially restored within one day after Hurricane Debby, within three days after Hurricane Helene, the strongest hurricane on record for the region, and within five days after Hurricane Milton, even as millions of customers across Florida experienced disruption.

These results demonstrate more than a faster response. They show that resilience translates into more reliable outcomes for customers.

DJ: Can distributed energy resources, microgrids, battery storage or other technologies help mitigate weather-related reliability risks?

Matamoros: These technologies can play an important role in improving resilience, particularly for critical facilities and communities that need access to power during prolonged outages. Microgrids and battery storage can provide localized support when parts of the broader grid are disrupted, while distributed energy resources add flexibility to the overall system. They become even more effective when combined with intelligent grid controls and automation. Resilience is often strongest when these resources complement, rather than replace, investments in the core grid.

DJ: Are there policy or regulatory tools available to help reduce customer cost impacts while maintaining reliability?

Matamoros: Regulators and policymakers can support investments that prioritize long-term resilience and reliability improvements and reduce the costs associated with repeated storm recovery efforts. Performance-based approaches, resilience-focused planning and funding mechanisms can help utilities make prudent investments while maintaining accountability. For example, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and DOE’s Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) program have provided sources of funding and aimed to accelerate efforts around reliability and grid resiliency.

It is also important that regulators help evaluate projects based on their ability to improve service continuity and reduce outage impacts over time. This will provide necessary accountability and incentivize utilities to strengthen the grid without losing sight of affordability.

DJ: What trends are utilities seeing in storm recovery and resilience spending, and what results are those investments producing?

Matamoros: Utilities are dedicating a growing share of capital spending toward resilience initiatives, particularly projects that improve operational awareness, automate restoration and strengthen vulnerable portions of the distribution network. Rather than focusing exclusively on rebuilding after storms, many organizations are investing in technologies that help prevent outages from becoming widespread in the first place. The result is often a grid that can respond more effectively under stress and recover more quickly when disruptions occur. As weather-related risks continue to evolve, utilities are increasingly measuring success by how well they can maintain service continuity during and after major events.