Beyond Blackouts: How Buildings Can Lead on Grid Resilience

The official start of summer 2025 brought record breaking heat to millions across the United States—particularly the eastern corridor, where temperatures soared to triple digits before the end of June. 

Cities like New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. declared heat emergencies, urging residents to seek shelter in cooling centers as nighttime temperatures barely dipped below 80 degrees F. (Holthaus 2025). In New York City, June temperatures hit 100 degrees F. with humidity pushing the heat index to a suffocating 126 degrees F. (PBS 2025). One of the hottest feeling days ever recorded was early in the summer.

As a result of these heat waves, building operators are facing more than just spiking utility bills. They are confronting a new baseline of climate volatility that challenges the systems our buildings depend on. 

Cooling is the Real Power Crisis

Demand for electricity is skyrocketing. Leading that added stress to the grid is demand for cooling solutions. Global electricity demand from air conditioning hit an all-time high in 2024, and that trend is continuing into 2025 (IEA 2024).

The higher need for cooling solutions is set to rise even faster than AI’s electricity demand—an estimated 1,200 TWh (terawatt hour) increase by 2035, roughly equal to the entire annual electricity consumption of the Middle East (Reuters 2025). 

These surges are fueled by two realities: climate change is making extreme heat more frequent, intense, and prolonged, and global urbanization is adding millions of new residential and commercial spaces. 

With climate models predicting more frequent and intense heatwaves (WMO 2025), and utility providers preparing for heightened demand on an aging and strained grid, building operators are facing a critical question: Are buildings ready to keep people safe without breaking the grid?

For building operators, especially those managing multifamily residences and hotels, the stakes are high. Your buildings are expected to provide a safe place for residents to escape the heat. As we are seeing, this kind of sustained, high heat event is no longer an outlier. It’s the new normal. 

HVAC systems are already responsible for 40-60% of total energy use in many large properties (NIH 2022). During heatwaves, those systems often operate at full tilt for days on end. This pushes local utilities to the brink and massively drives up costs. 

Worse still, when utilities run out of capacity, they turn to energy options. This means activating peaker plants (typically dirty, expensive, and located near disadvantaged communities) or issuing rolling blackouts. 

Why Automated Demand Response is a Lifeline

This is where demand response (DR) emerges as a vital tool. DR programs allow utilities to incentivize short-term reductions in electricity use during peak periods. Building operators who participate can earn revenue based on the amount of load they reduce during a DR event, typically spanning two to four hours. But, beyond the economic incentive, DR helps avoid grid emergencies by shaving demand at exactly the times it matters most.

Today’s DR is a far cry from the clunky programs of the past. Modern systems can automate HVAC adjustments based on updated grid signals, which ensures that buildings can respond quickly and predictably to an event. Instead of asking staff to manually adjust equipment (or worse, impact occupant comfort), automated DR uses forecasting, thermal modeling, and remote HVAC control to make smart adjustments in the background. 

These systems can pre-cool spaces before an event, moderate fan speeds or chiller loads during the peak window, and then smoothly return to baseline afterward. All while keeping the inside conditions within the comfort range. 

The key benefit is precision. With automation, building operators can fine-tune how aggressively they respond based on occupancy, time of day, and system capacity. A hotel might curtail common area cooling by a few degrees while maintaining comfort in guest rooms. A multifamily building can pre-cool hallways and stairwells, creating a thermal buffer that reduces the load when it counts. 

The building gets paid, the grid stays stable, and tenants often don’t even notice. 

Automation’s Role in Maximizing the Impact of DR Events

Maximizing this value depends heavily on automation. In a manually operated scenario, building teams may miss the start of an event, underperform due to uncertainty about how far to curtail, or delay returning systems to normal afterwards, losing both revenue and risking occupancy discomfort. 

Automation changes that equation. With remote HVAC control and intelligent programming, a building can shift seamlessly into DR mode the moment an event is triggered. Pre-cooling strategies can be deployed ahead of time to create a thermal buffer, allowing for deeper curtailment without sacrificing comfort. After the event, systems can be gradually returned to their setpoints to avoid costly post-event demand spikes. 

For example, many building managers struggle to manually adjust rooftop ventilation equipment in time for a DR event. With automation, these components can be pre-programmed to shut off in seconds, regardless of where the staff is or how busy they are. This means consistent, repeatable performance, which is key to earning the highest possible DR payments.

Buildings that implement automated demand response see greater depth of curtailment, faster response times, and less rebound. That means property teams can earn more revenue, have fewer tenant issues, and be in full compliance with the program's rules.

The New Standard for Smarter Buildings

In a summer when mayors are opening cooling centers and issuing heat emergency declarations before July, DR has become a practical necessity. But to be profitable and accessible, it must be automated. 

Buildings that rely on manual protocols or paper-based DR plans will continue to leave money on the table. Worse, they may fail to respond quickly enough during grid emergencies, jeopardizing occupancy comfort and long-term program eligibility. 

I have seen firsthand how powerful DR can be, not just for grid support, but for financial performance and operational efficiency. But the story is bigger than this; it’s a model for how the built environment must evolve to stay resilient, profitable, and responsible.

Heatwaves are getting longer and more frequent. Grid stress isn’t going away. The buildings that thrive will be those that are not just efficient, but flexible.