Extreme weather

Heatwave + Drought

Cooling demand rises just as the water runs low. Hydro produces less, and hot rivers limit nuclear cooling too.

Play Heatwave + Drought See what’s at stake

Free to play in your browser. Choose your difficulty in the game.

The situation

Your starting point

Start in 2023 with a scaled model of Spain's generation mix, including hydro, wind, solar, gas, nuclear and battery storage. It is a varied fleet, but several sources depend on the same weather.

Hot, dry summers squeeze both sides of the supply chart. Customers need more cooling while low inflow reduces hydro availability and warm river water cuts reactor output. You have four years to make that combination manageable.

The choices

What will you do?

  1. Budget water as well as capacity

    Watch reservoir conditions and the drought outlook. A dam's rated output says little about how long it can keep generating with reduced inflow.

  2. Cover the coinciding losses

    Plan for hydro and nuclear limits together. Compare additional generation, storage and demand measures against the hours of greatest strain.

  3. Check the cost of your backup

    Gas can help cover a shortfall, but fuel costs and emissions remain part of the result. Build a plan you can afford to use.

Put your plan to the test

A varied fleet can still share a single vulnerability. Find out how yours handles a shortage of water.

Build, watch what happens, and try a different approach. The grid is yours to run.

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