In the wake of a record-setting hurricane season, extensive wildfire impacts, extreme winter weather that left millions without power, and rapidly evolving cybersecurity threats, the Electric Power Research Institute, EPRI recently released the results of a collaborative study on the value of grid resilience. The report culminates a year-long research project aiming to help industry stakeholders better determine the value of grid investments designed to enhance resilience against future threats. The Value of Resilience White Paper outlines key focus areas for decision-makers preparing for a future in which power outages could more significantly impact transportation, industry, healthcare, and other services. The approach to valuing grid resilience needs to take into account the customer, business, and community impacts of service disruptions to quantify the societal costs.
“A resilient energy system is critical to the entire economy, to all Americans,” said EPRI Vice President of Corporate Affairs Katie Jereza. “Building that resilient grid requires clarity about what investments to the grid actually mean for continuity of operations and reliability. By looking beyond the kilowatt-hour, we can better target investments to withstand and recover from future threats.”   Â
The study categorizes the range of threats as chronic, such as climate change, and acute, such as extreme weather, natural disasters, cyberattacks, or an electromagnetic pulse. Mitigating these threats requires resilience enhancements in energy supply, transmission substation and distribution infrastructure, and communications infrastructure.
The study involved a broad group of industry and government stakeholders, including the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Electricity and Reliability, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, National Energy Technology Laboratory, the Edison Electric Institute and numerous utilities.
Through its collaborative research and development model, EPRI works with utilities, regulators, and other industry stakeholders to better understand the perspectives of energy providers and customers, identify evolving threats, and target investments to enhance energy system resilience.
The white paper is intended to serve as a starting point for industry stakeholders to better prioritize resilience-focused investments benefiting customers and society.
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