Electricity powers our communications, lights our homes and businesses, propels our trains (and some cars and buses!), and keeps our hospitals running—literally keeping people alive. Plans for our clean energy future depend on electricity generated by low- or no carbon sources to move our vehicles, as well as heat and cool our homes. We take for granted that electricity will be there when we need it.
Yet as central as it is to our lives, we simply take for granted that the electricity will be there when we need it. Climate change presents challenges to the reliability of our electricity supply. These include downed lines due to storms, electrical infrastructure failing due to flooding or extreme heat, and failures due to circuit overloads as demand peaks in hotter summer heat waves and winter cold snaps. They also include loss of supply from nuclear power marginalized when cooling water sources are either too warm or dried up due to drought.
This forum explored investments being made by utilities to prepare their infrastructure for the threats of climate change, and the measures that institutions, including local governments, can take to protect their electricity supply.
Agenda
- Welcome and Introduction
Robert Graff - Manager, Office of Energy and Climate Change Initiatives, DVRPC - Panel of Experts [0.3 MB pdf]
- Neil Weisenfeld - P.E., Senior Energy Resilience Expert, ICF
- Charles Viemeister - Project Manager—Strategic Planning, Con Edison
- Eric Stein - Manager of New Technology Programs, PECO
- Moderated Panel Discussion and Participant Q&A
Robert Graff - Manager, Office of Energy and Climate Change Initiatives, DVRPC
Additional Materials
- Meeting Agenda [0.7 MB pdf]
- Panelists' Bios [0.3 MB pdf]
- List of Registered Participants [0.6 MB pdf]