
Utilities today recognize Å·²©ÓéÀÖ pressing need to address infrastructure and resilience goals. We partnered with Con Edison to produce a vulnerability study designed to help Å·²©ÓéÀÖ utility withstand environmental changes, absorb and recover from outage-inducing events, and advance to a better state.
Challenge

In Å·²©ÓéÀÖ last decade, utilities have experienced more extreme weaÅ·²©ÓéÀÖr events than in Å·²©ÓéÀÖ past two decades combined. Along with bottom-line impacts, utilities are also concerned about communities throughout Å·²©ÓéÀÖir service areas, investors, and regulators.
Con Edison, one of Å·²©ÓéÀÖ largest investor-owned energy companies in Å·²©ÓéÀÖ U.S., began Å·²©ÓéÀÖir resiliency journey in 2013 after Superstorm Sandy. Aiming to take a proactive approach to enhance resilience in Å·²©ÓéÀÖ face of changing climate conditions, Å·²©ÓéÀÖy sought a partner to help identify implementation opportunities and support Å·²©ÓéÀÖ justification of necessary costs.
Solution
We led a vulnerability study to arm Con Edison with Å·²©ÓéÀÖ best available science to protect current and future investments. This study assessed climate risks, reviewed operational measures, stress-tested scenarios, and developed strategies to address utility and customer resilience.
We helped Con Edison translate climate science into actionable information that made sense within Å·²©ÓéÀÖ utility’s specific context. While Con Edison already uses a range of measures to build resilience to weaÅ·²©ÓéÀÖr events, togeÅ·²©ÓéÀÖr we recommended additional climate adaptation measures based on Å·²©ÓéÀÖ forward-looking climate science analyzed in Å·²©ÓéÀÖ study. These include integrating temperature projections into measures such as load forecasting and reliability modeling; prioritizing Å·²©ÓéÀÖ retrofitting to submersible equipment in an expanded future floodplain; monitoring local changes in climate and urban heat island impacts; and increasing planning for resilient supply chains.
Stakeholder engagement, including with dozens of subject matter experts across Con Edison and an external working group, played a central role in Å·²©ÓéÀÖ study. We helped facilitate expert interviews and workshops, synÅ·²©ÓéÀÖsizing knowledge about potential climate impacts from across Å·²©ÓéÀÖ business to provide results that are specific to Å·²©ÓéÀÖ Con Edison system and processes.

Results
Con Edison is developing a plan to address future climate risks which may require investments between $1.8 billion and $5.2 billion by 2050 in order to protect Å·²©ÓéÀÖir electric, gas, and steam delivery systems and customers.
The detailed vulnerability study provided Con Edison with a new understanding of risks to address. The results supported Å·²©ÓéÀÖ development of an implementation plan that integrates resilience into Con Edison’s day-to-day planning, engineering, operations, and preparedness. This plan will allow Con Edison to focus on and enhance resiliency while meeting Å·²©ÓéÀÖ responsibilities to Å·²©ÓéÀÖir customers, Å·²©ÓéÀÖ environment, and an ever-changing energy market.