Sponsors (7)
Official title: To develop weather tools for electricity system planning and operational modeling, expand research on extreme weather event scenarios for energy utility companies and regulators, and for other purposes.
Introduced July 10, 2025 by Teresa Leger Fernandez · Last progress July 10, 2025
The bill provides a free, high-resolution, weather-informed Platform plus training and research funding that can substantially improve grid resilience and planning, but it requires federal spending, may impose adoption costs on smaller stakeholders, and risks losing value if under-resourced or misused.
Utilities, hospitals, and communities (especially rural) can model cascading failures using correlated spatiotemporal weather data and ensemble scenarios, improving grid resilience to extreme weather.
Grid operators, utilities, and state and local governments gain free, high-resolution weather-informed Platform access for electricity planning and operations within 2 years, enabling better-informed operational and investment decisions.
Utilities, regulators, and municipalities receive training and technical assistance so they can effectively use the data and tools, lowering barriers to adoption and improving planning capacity.
Taxpayers face increased federal spending to develop, maintain, and fund grants for the Platform, which could raise budgetary outlays or divert funds from other programs.
Smaller utilities, local governments, and rural communities may incur costs and face capacity challenges adopting new data-driven practices even with offered trainings.
If the Platform is not properly updated or resourced, it could lag behind state-of-the-science research, reducing its usefulness for planning and undermining intended benefits.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires DOE to report, build an open-access Weather-Safe Energy Platform for high-resolution weather/hydrology data, fund research on extreme-weather impacts, and provide training to power-sector stakeholders.
Creates a federally supported, open-access Weather-Safe Energy Platform and directs the Department of Energy to report on and build high-resolution meteorological and hydrological data products tailored for electricity system planning and operations. The bill requires an initial report within 6 months, delivery of the Platform within 2 years, competitive research support on extreme-weather impacts, integration of research outputs, and training and technical assistance for utilities, grid operators, regulators, and local governments.