A Data Preparation Pipeline for Regional Weather Condition Correlation Analysis of Power Grid Outages in Italy

The resilience of electricity networks to extreme weather is an essential component of sustainable energy systems, as power interruptions can affect essential services, economic activities, public safety, and the integration of renewable energy sources. However, this assessment can be challenging due to the inherent differences and complexities between weather and grid data. To address this issue, we developed a data pipeline to acquire, prepare, and integrate power grid outage records, meteorological measurements, and lightning strike data into a unified relational database. The framework was applied to the Italian power grid, with detailed regional analyses conducted for Piedmont and Campania. The results show that, for more than 90% of the matched weather-related failures, at least one relevant weather condition was identified in the integrated datasets. Rainfall showed the most widespread association with failures throughout the year, while lightning was particularly relevant during summer and snowfall during colder months. The proposed framework provides a reproducible basis for monitoring weather-related infrastructure vulnerability and can support evidence-based maintenance prioritization, climate adaptation, and resilience-oriented grid planning. By facilitating the identification of regional risk patterns, the approach contributes to the development of more reliable and sustainable electricity infrastructure.