{"id":22492,"date":"2022-06-16T13:19:39","date_gmt":"2022-06-16T18:19:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/?p=22492"},"modified":"2022-06-16T13:23:04","modified_gmt":"2022-06-16T18:23:04","slug":"our-new-electric-resilience-toolkit-resources-to-enhance-climate-resilience-planning-by-electric-utilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2022\/06\/16\/our-new-electric-resilience-toolkit-resources-to-enhance-climate-resilience-planning-by-electric-utilities\/","title":{"rendered":"Our New Electric Resilience Toolkit: Resources to Enhance Climate Resilience Planning by Electric Utilities"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"This post was co-authored by EDF\u2019s Michael Panfil and Romany Webb of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School<\/em><\/p>\n

Columbia Law School\u2019s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, Environmental Defense Fund, and the Initiative on Climate Risk and Resilience Law have released a new Electric Resilience Toolkit<\/a> to support policymakers and other people who are working on issues around electric sector regulation and climate resilience planning.<\/p>\n

That planning is essential to ensure electricity infrastructure is designed and operated in a way that accounts for the impacts of climate change \u2014 impacts that are already being felt and which will only intensify in coming years.<\/p>\n

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Climate change amplified heat waves, wildfires, storms, and other extreme events pose major risks to electricity generation, transmission, and distribution assets across the United States. Just last weekend, extreme high temperatures in Texas caused electricity distribution infrastructure in the Dallas-Fort Worth area to fail, leaving approximately 1,000 homes and businesses without power.<\/p>\n

Many more Texans experienced power outages last year, when extreme cold temperatures associated with Winter Storm Uri forced many electricity generating plants to shut-down, resulting in a tragedy<\/a> that should not have happened.<\/p>\n

Also last year, Hurricane Ida caused extensive damage to transmission lines in Louisiana, leading to widespread outages. And the year before, California saw multiple days of rolling blackouts when a combination of high heat, drought, and wildfires led to a reduction in electricity generation and the loss of major transmission lines. As these examples demonstrate, the more frequent and severe extreme weather events brought by climate change are already stressing the electricity system.<\/p>\n

In addition to extreme weather, electric utilities and system operators must also prepare for shifts in baseline weather and environmental conditions, such as higher average temperatures and sea levels, when planning and operating the electric grid. For example, as a result of sea level rise, coastal communities now see twice as many high tide flooding days as they did 20 years ago. The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration estimates that the frequency of \u201cmajor\u201d high tide flooding events (when coastal water levels exceed four feet above the mean high water level) will increase by 400% between 2020 and 2050. That could have major implications for coastal energy facilities, with past studies identifying almost 300 such facilities that are within four feet of ordinary high tide levels.<\/p>\n

To prepare for the risks posed by climate change, electric utilities must engage in climate resilience planning \u2013 a two-stage process through which utilities:<\/p>\n