Global Power Crunch Hit at Least 350 Million People With Outages Last Year

(Bloomberg) -- At least 350 million people were impacted by power outages last year as extreme weather and the shift to cleaner energy sources saw more markets hit by supply disruptions, IHS Markit said in report.

More than 4% of the world population were affected as regions with previously reliable power supply, such as Texas and China, suffered blackouts and rationing. Climate change is bringing more extreme weather, while an “inherently bumpy” transition to greener energies is compounding long-standing problems of under-investment in grids and plants, the report said.

READ: Global Energy Crisis Shows Fragility of Clean-Power Era

The shift to wind and solar energy is essential to meeting global climate targets, but it's also encouraging investors to shun fossil fuels that are still required for security of supply. The resulting global energy crunch -- with surging prices in Europe and rolling blackouts in China -- has been worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic and supply chain bottlenecks.

“Fossil fuel supply is still the dominant form of energy in most parts of the world. If that supply is curbed faster than demand for it declines -- and before alternative technologies can fill the gap -- shortfalls can arise, leading to soaring prices,” Xizhou Zhou, head of global power and renewables at IHS Markit, said in a statement.

Climate change is also impairing the reliability of power systems, with more cold snaps and droughts in places that lack the infrastructure to handle such extreme weather. Changing weather patterns are also making it harder to forecast demand and supply, IHS Markit said.