Using climate data to inform energy system planning: Climate Science gaps and open questions from Southern California Edison's Climate Adaptation Vulnerability Assessment

Climate change poses significant risks to electricity systems and to the provision of reliable electric service. Electric utilities will need to contend with the myriad ways that changing climate conditions will impact their assets, operations, and services. As part of its recent Climate Adaptation Vulnerability Assessment (CAVA), Southern California Edison (SCE) used climate projections to evaluate the vulnerability of its system to hazards including temperature, precipitation, flood, drought, wildfire and sea level rise. Here, we will focus on how SCE utilized climate projections to evaluate potential chronic and acute impacts to the Southern California grid in addition to emerging climate science needs to facilitate study of extreme events by electric system planners.