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Expert Insight: Keeping the power on!

When media are covering America's vulnerable electrical system - they connected with Florida Tech's Ken Cummins for answers

Mar 11, 2025

2 min

With extreme weather becoming more commonplace than a phenomenon, America's reliance on power and electricity has been in the spotlight.


Unfortunately, it's not for its resilience and reliability, but for the vulnerability of millions of Americans with each passing weather event.


Florida Tech's Ken Cummins contributed to a recent study published in PLOS Climate that examined how various extreme weather events threaten the power grid in the United States.


Multiple studies have shown that power outages alone can increase threats to human health—from spoiled food to failing medical equipment to a loss of heat in winter. These threats become more dire when paired with severe weather.

This kind of information could be useful to utility companies, which must allocate finite resources for maintenance and repair and make plans for a range of scenarios, said Ken Cummins, a researcher at the Florida Institute of Technology with experience in grid reliability who wasn’t involved in the research. (Cummins is a former science adviser to Eos.) But he cautioned that the specific infrastructure used by local electric utilities, which can vary significantly, is also an important factor. 

“One thing that would be a problem in St. Louis might not be a problem in Denver or Omaha and would certainly be a different problem in New York City or Long Island,” he said. February 21 - EOS



The same research got a lot of coverage across America and internationally.


United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction:



ZME Science:



This is a vital topic given the weight climate change and extreme weather are now placing on America's energy sector. If you're a journalist looking to cover this topic, let us help.


Read the PLOS Climate Study here:


Dr. Ken Cummins is a part-time Research Professor in the Department of Aerospace, Physics, and Space Sciences at Florida Institute of Technology. He is formally trained in statistical signal processing, modeling, and instrumentation.


Ken is available to speak with media. Contact Adam Lowenstein, Director of Media Communications at Florida Institute of Technology at adam@fit.edu to arrange an interview today.


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