MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Winter in West Virginia can be unforgiving, especially for households and businesses already struggling with high utility bills and the threat of losing heat when ice storms, extreme cold, or surging demand strain the electric grid.
West Virginia University researchers say improving winter energy resilience is key to maintaining power and controlling costs. They note that solutions already exist, and that a major federal investment now under consideration could help deploy them across West Virginia and western Pennsylvania.
New technologies, ranging from artificial intelligence–assisted grid management to geothermal heating systems, could make winter power supply more reliable and affordable if the region secures National Science Foundation “Engines” funding.
Anurag Srivastava, professor and chair of the Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, and Shikha Sharma, chief scientific officer of the WVU Institute for Sustainability and Energy Research, say there are remedies.
Winter puts the grid under pressure
“Winter creates multiple, simultaneous stresses,” Srivastava said. "First is a spike in electricity demand. When temperatures plunge, homes and businesses turn on electric heating, heat pumps, and backup systems almost at once.”
That sudden surge forces utilities and grid operators to respond quickly, he said, often under difficult conditions. At the same time, extreme cold can reduce the performance of critical infrastructure.
“Battery energy storage systems—which are still not well integrated into the grid but are increasingly relied on as fast-response reserves—lose capacity in cold temperatures, precisely when they are needed most,” Srivastava said.
Winter storms add another layer of risk. Ice accumulation, high winds, and falling trees can damage power lines and substations, leading to outages that ripple through communities.
“Even short outages can have serious consequences: frozen pipes and health risks for households, production losses for businesses, and reduced reliability for hospitals, emergency services, and communications systems,” he said.
Those disruptions can also show up on monthly bills.
“When utilities must rely on expensive peaking generators or emergency fuel supplies during cold snaps, those costs can eventually flow through to customers,” Srivastava said.
AI and smarter grids
Srivastava said the goal of emerging technologies and federal investment is not just to prevent outages but to strengthen winter energy resilience across the region—ensuring the grid can adapt quickly to extreme weather while limiting long-term cost impacts on consumers.
“The energy sector is increasingly turning to advanced tools, including ‘physics-aware’ artificial intelligence that enables human grid operators or automated control devices to make faster, safer decisions,” he said.
That work is at the center of the Resilient Energy Technology and Infrastructure Consortium, led by WVU in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. The consortium is one of 15 national finalists for funding under the National Science Foundation's Regional Innovation Engines program.
“If RETI receives the NSF award, those funds will help us improve our grid flexibility, forecasting, impact analysis, and asset utilization,” Srivastava said.
“The result will be reduced risk of winter outages and control over long-term electricity costs, strengthening energy security for West Virginians and Pennsylvanians.”
Geothermal heat as a winter energy resilience
While grid modernization addresses large-scale reliability, Sharma said geothermal heating offers a practical solution for winter energy resilience in individual homes and communities facing winter heating challenges.
“In winter, many households that rely on conventional heating systems powered by electricity, propane, or natural gas experience service disruptions, inefficient heating, and spikes in power bills,” Sharma said.
Ground-source geothermal systems tap into the Earth’s relatively constant subsurface temperature, providing steady heat even during extreme cold.
“Geothermal heat pumps operate at much higher efficiency than conventional home heating systems and can lower monthly heating bills, minimizing exposure to price spikes and the risk of service disruptions during peak winter demand,” she said.
At the residential scale, Sharma added, geothermal systems also offer safety and health benefits.
“They eliminate combustion-related hazards such as carbon monoxide exposure, indoor air pollution, and gas leaks,” she said.
Building on West Virginia’s energy legacy
Sharma said geothermal energy represents a natural extension of West Virginia’s long energy history.
“For more than a century, the state’s energy economy has been built on fossil fuel extraction,” she said. “The core technologies required for unconventional geothermal systems—directional drilling, hydraulic stimulation, and advanced reservoir characterization—are direct extensions of existing industry expertise and infrastructure.”
According to Sharma, WVU researchers have already demonstrated that enhanced geothermal heat resources exist in and around Morgantown and across much of north-central, central, and northeastern West Virginia.
“These resources are viable for large-scale district heating and cooling as well as potential electrification,” she said.
Federal funding could accelerate deployment
The next step, Sharma said, depends heavily on whether the region secures NSF Engines funding.
“The immediate future of geothermal energy in the Appalachian Basin will depend in large part on whether the Resilient Energy Technology and Infrastructure Consortium is successful in its bid,” she said.
The funding is designed to move technologies from research into real-world use.
“If it comes to our region, it can support the development of geothermal resources for direct-use heating and possibly even electricity generation by supporting the siting, drilling, and pilot-scale demonstrations that are needed to establish viable geothermal infrastructure here,” Sharma said.
For communities facing another season of volatile weather and rising costs, investments that strengthen winter energy resilience—from smarter grids to geothermal heating—could mean warmer homes, fewer outages, and more predictable utility bills in the years ahead.
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