Extreme Weather Risks to Renewable Power Systems: Taxonomy of Structural Impacts and Vulnerabilities

The escalation of climate change-driven extreme weather, combined with the energy transition toward Variable Renewable Energy (VRE), creates complex failure modes in power systems. This paper proposes a formalized vulnerability taxonomy to address these evolving failure modes, distinguishing three types: Type I (Structural Fault), Type II (Dynamic Instability driven by low inertia), and Type III (Thermal Derating and cumulative aging). A review of modeling frameworks, ranging from statistical fragility curves to high-fidelity electro-thermal simulations, is conducted for each type. The analysis highlights some limitations of static availability models and advocates for a multi-physics approach to accurately characterize vulnerabilities facing the emerging climatic stress and grid modernization.

Keywords: power system, vulnerabilities, extreme weather, renewable integration, compound risk, HILP events, windstorms, heatwaves, wildfires, cold spells, lightning, flooding, storage.