From water pumps and sewage systems to mobile networks and home care, much of daily life comes under pressure during a power outage. A power outage also affects critical infrastructure, such as drinking water, telecommunications and healthcare. That is exactly why the question is so interesting: what really happens when the power goes out? Gerwin Hoogsteen, Assistant Professor at the University of Twente, studies how smart energy grids can cope better with disruptions like these.
More than just no lights
“The impact of a power outage is much broader than you might first think,” says Gerwin. “People think about their fridge or lighting, but public services are affected too.” With a short outage, that is mainly inconvenient. But when the power stays out for longer, it becomes clear how many systems quietly depend on electricity.
Without power, it becomes difficult to pump water, remove wastewater or keep houses comfortably warm. Even a gas boiler needs electricity to keep running. Healthcare also becomes vulnerable: hospitals have backup power, but for people at home who rely on equipment or support, a prolonged outage can quickly become complicated.
According to Gerwin, the real challenge is not only the power outage itself. The fact that it will happen at some point is almost inevitable. The real question is what else comes under pressure afterwards.
Why communication matters so much
In a major power outage, it is not only electricity that matters, but communication too. At exactly the moment people need help, emergency services must be able to work out where the biggest problems are. For that, mobile networks and communication systems are essential.
“The most important thing is how emergency support is organised,” says Gerwin. “Communication is crucial for that.” Mobile phone masts have batteries, so they can keep on functioning for a while. But those run flat too. And if everyone starts calling at once to check whether family or friends are alright, capacity runs out even faster. “You are effectively using up the backup power of those phone masts, while it is actually needed for real emergency support.”
Smarter, but also more vulnerable
Our energy system is changing fast. Where electricity once came from a small number of large power stations, we now have millions of solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and electric vehicle chargers. That makes the system more flexible, but also more complex.
Digitalisation helps us monitor what is happening and control systems more intelligently. At the same time, it creates a new dependency. “Older systems could actually be more robust in some respects,” says Gerwin. The electricity grid of the past could operate stably without the internet. Now communication networks have become an extra link in the chain, and by that, they also introduce a new potential weakness.
That does not mean digitalisation is the wrong direction. Without smart control, a modern energy system with so many local renewable sources simply cannot work properly.
Why your solar panels do not just keep working
Many people wonder: if the power goes out, why can’t you just use your own solar panels? It sounds logical, but in most cases it does not work that way. Solar panels at home are connected to the national grid. If that grid goes down, inverters automatically stop feeding electricity back into the system. This is not simply a technical limitation, but above all a safety measure. If homes or solar panels keep feeding electricity back while engineers are working on cables, dangerous situations can arise.
In some cases, an installation can be disconnected from the national grid and continue supplying the house with power. This is known as an islanded operation. But it requires a suitable installation. In most households, this is not standard.
In other words, your own energy supply is also part of a much bigger system. That shows just how smart, but also how interconnected, our energy system has become.
Being prepared matters more than preventing everything
According to Gerwin, the biggest gain for the future does not lie in the idea that every outage can be prevented. That is simply not realistic. What matters more is making sure systems are prepared for what happens when something does go wrong.
“That electricity feels normal is something we have grown used to in the Netherlands in recent years,” he says. “But if you look at everything that has to happen behind the scenes to make that possible, it is not normal at all.”
This is also where his research comes into play. One important direction is designing smaller, more independent energy systems that can keep on functioning locally when a larger network goes down. Think of neighbourhoods or areas where batteries, electric cars and other local energy sources can temporarily keep the most important services running.
New technology as part of the solution
That may be the most surprising conclusion of all. New technology does not only make us more dependent; it can also become part of the solution. Batteries, electric vehicles and solar panels add complexity, but they also create possibilities we did not have before.
“In the past, we depended mainly on large power stations far away,” says Gerwin. “New technologies now also give us the option of solving this much more locally. That would have been impossible twenty or thirty years ago.”
So the question is not only what happens when the power goes out, but also how we build an energy system that can cope with it better. A power outage shows that, as a society, and with the help of smart technology, we are becoming better able to adapt quickly to unexpected situations.
