Summer is getting hotter, and utilities need to adapt.June 25, 2026Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty It’s been hard to look away from headlines about the European heat wave this week. Temperatures are breaking records across the continent, and the weather is threatening lives, shutting down schools, and in one particularly ironic case, forcing the cancellation of a London Climate Action Week event about extreme heat. As the summer ramps up and we see this kind of weather sweep around the Northern Hemisphere, I’m always keeping my eye on the power grid. And one notable update that caught my attention this week was news that a nuclear power plant in the south of France had to close down because of the heat. Climate change is squeezing the grid from all sides, affecting both supply and demand. Heat can affect power availability, from generation to transmission infrastructure, as I covered in my latest story. But climate change is also helping push electricity use higher—and countries in Europe and around the world will need to adapt. In the US, nearly 90% of homes have air-conditioning. That means many grids see their highest demand in the summer months, and the risk of brownouts and blackouts is at its worst.