# Extreme Climate Events and Energy Market Vulnerability: A Systematic Global Review
## 4 Impacts and Adaptation Strategies to Natural Events: A Review of Global Studies
### Australia  
Australia, with its vast geographical area and unique weather conditions, faces special challenges related to energy stability in extreme weather situations. Frequent storms, heat waves, and the occasional \"renewable drought\" where sustainable energy generation is very low have marked effects on the region's electricity systems, not only that, but also the growing dependence on renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, which is initially seen as a good thing, ignoring the various problems that this situation produces. Therefore, in this part of the review, studies address how Australia improves the resilience and efficiency of its energy infrastructure. Specifically, from the analysis and observations of [PERSON] et al. [58], wind power fluctuations during storms disrupted balancing generators and carbon emissions within the Australian National Electricity Market (NEM). The study focused on how large fluctuations in output from the wind farm during storms affected the efficiency of fossil-fueled generators used for balancing and the overall net carbon emissions. The researchers used data from storm events of 2012 and 2013 to estimate the output variations of Frequency Control Ancillary Services (FCAS) generators, assessing their efficiency and overall emissions impact. The authors reformulate heat rate curves for each generator such that operating ranges and emissions linked with the compensation of wind power variability are appraised. These findings indicate that, even if the efficiencies of FCAS generators are lower during the times that wind power output arises, displacement amounts to reduced net carbon emissions because wind power substitutes fossil fuel generation. Across all storm events analyzed, wind energy consistently offsets the increased emission intensity from lower FCAS efficiency. The outcomes accentuate the role expected of wind power to play in curtailing carbon emissions even under erratic conditions, such as storms. Furthermore, in managing disruptions to energy supply caused by extreme weather events, an analysis focused on Australia's National Electricity Market aimed to identify and mitigate periods of low renewable generation, termed \"renewable droughs\", using 15 years of climate and power demand data [59]. The findings indeed show that the months \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{p{113.8 pt} p{113.8 pt} p{113.8 pt} p{113.8 pt}} \hline \hline
**Climate Event** & **Effects** & **Adaptation Strategies** & **References** \\ \hline Droughs and heat waves & Hydropower loss, blackout risk. & Solar, wind growth, water efficiency. & [36; 47; 49] \\ \hline Floods and storms & Grid damage, instability. & Flood defenses, climate planning. & [31; 33; 35; 37; 38; 41; 46; 48; 51; 52] \\ \hline Wind variability & Wind shortfall, price spikes. & Wind farm diversification. & [32] \\ \hline Climate change and system stress & Hydropower fall, fossil use, instability. & Renewables, carbon capture, risk planning. & [39; 40; 50; 42; 56; 43; 50] \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 5: Analysis of the extreme weather events that occurred in North America and classified in terms of their impact on the energy systems and mitigation strategies. Source: own elaboration from [31; 32; 33; 34; 51; 52; 53; 54; 55; 31; 56; 57]. of May through August pose the greatest risk of load loss in the NEM. The mixture of factors behind this is an expectedly high demand in southern Australian states, reduced solar generation, and extended low-wind periods. Proposed renewable energy mixes must account for seasonal low-wind winters, not just isolated events. Energy storage assists in addressing the short-term nighttime demand, and dispatchable thermal generation technologies can provide a more cost-effective solution for such durations of low-wind generation. Including offshore wind could reduce storage needs, although floating turbines remain economically unfeasible.