  El Ni\~no-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) exhibits significant impacts on the
frequency of extreme weather events and its socio-economic implications prevail
on a global scale. However, a fundamental gap still exists in understanding the
relationship between the ENSO and weather-related power outages in the
continental United States. Through 24-year (2000-2023) composite and
statistical analysis, our study reveals that higher power outage numbers (PONs)
are observed from the developing winter to the decaying summer of La Ni\~na
phases. In particular, during the decaying spring, high La Ni\~na intensity
favors the occurrences of power outage over the west coast and east of the
United States, by modulating the frequency of extreme precipitations and
heatwaves. Furthermore, projected increasing heatwaves from the Coupled Model
Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) indicate that spring-time PONs over the
eastern United States occur about 11 times higher for the mid-term future
(2041-2060) and almost 26 times higher for the long-term future (2081-2100),
compared with 2000-2023. Our study provides a strong recommendation for
building a more climate-resilient power system.
