Climate-Resilient Smart Energy Grid Planning for Extreme Heat and Environmental Conditions in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Saudi Arabia is increasing renewable energy generation, electrifying its systems and implementing digital technologies in the grid, all against a backdrop of a climate in which summer temperatures, dust, humidity and other co-occurring environmental stresses simultaneously raise demand and degrade the electricity infrastructure. This study synthesizes the evidence published between 2020 and 2025 to examine how climate-resilient smart-grid planning can help reduce these interconnected risks. A structured integrative review was carried out by selecting a purposeful collection of peer-reviewed studies and official energy and climate reports, with a focus on Saudi Arabia, the Gulf Cooperation Council, arid power systems, and methods of resistance that can be transferred to other contexts. The evidence was analysed along four dimensions: hazard, exposure, vulnerability, and adaptive capacity, and then linked to the areas of generation, transmission, distribution, demand, storage, digital control, and governance. The synthesis reveals that extreme heat is not simply a single issue relating to equipment; it causes cooling peaks at the same time, reduces both generation and network capacity, accelerates thermal ageing, and can occur alongside photovoltaic soiling, constraints on water use, and communication or cyber-physical failures. The most effective approach to planning therefore involves a multi-layered system that incorporates climate-based load forecasting, dynamic asset ratings, heat-resistant equipment, a varied geographical mix of renewable energy sources, storage, demand response, microgrids for critical loads, advanced metering, artificial intelligence, and regional interconnection. The review suggests a planning framework specific to Saudi Arabia that takes into account resilience together with cost and decarbonisation, using measures such as critical-load continuity, energy not served, restoration time, thermal headroom, and forecast error in severe situations. It finds that climate resilience should be integrated into long-term capacity expansion, grid codes, asset standards and operational digital twins, rather than an add-on for emergency management.