POWER September 2022 - 34

RELIABILITY & RESILIENCY
Shoring Up the Grid for Extreme
Weather and Climate Change
The threat of climate change is no longer a threat-it's here and it's impacting everyone.
However, in New Jersey, 10 years after Superstorm Sandy, communities are better
prepared than ever to handle future weather-related events.
Kim Hanemann
W
hether it's California wildfires,
scorching heat in Western Europe,
or thousand-year floods in
Yellowstone National Park, we are all adjusting
to the effects of climate change.
In New Jersey, we got an early glimpse
of what extreme weather could do a
decade ago, when Superstorm Sandy
raged across the East Coast, killing more
than 125 people and causing more than
$60 billion in damage.
At Public Service Electric and Gas
(PSE&G), the largest and oldest utility in
New Jersey, Sandy was an inflection point.
Our 6,400 employees, along with 4,500
mutual aid workers from 24 states and
the Province of Quebec, worked roundthe-clock
for weeks to restore power to
two million (90%) of PSE&G customers-
many leaving their own struggling families
and flooded homes to serve customers.
Damage from Sandy was unprecedented.
Storm surges of more than 12
feet flooded over 14 electric switching
stations and interrupted one-third of our
transmission lines. More than 48,000
trees had to be trimmed or removed and
2,500 of our poles were repaired or replaced
(Figure 1).
The real toll, of course, was human. In
addition to the 38 lives lost in New Jersey,
346,000 homes across the state were
damaged. Power outages affected critical
infrastructure like water and sewage systems.
Teams of PSE&G employees set
up mobile service centers in the hardest
hit communities, distributing more than
90,000 bags of ice, 60,000 cases of water,
and 45,000 ready-made meals.
In the aftermath of Sandy, PSE&G
went to work, developing a plan to better
protect our customers from future
extreme weather events. The plan eventually
became known as Energy Strong
and the Gas System Modernization Program
(GSMP)-a multi-year, multi-phase
$4.8 billion initiative to strengthen and
modernize electric and gas infrastructure
that continues today.
Meeting the Challenge
We realized that New Jersey's energy infrastructure
needed extensive upgrades
(Figure 2) to withstand the effects of
climate change, which has made severe
storms more frequent and ferocious.
This year, Colorado State University meteorologists
predicted there would be 20
named storms, including four major hurricanes.
Last year, there were 21 named
storms, making it the sixth consecutive
year of above-average storm activity.
PSE&G worked with multiple local,
state, and federal agencies to get support
for the historic investment, and deployed
legions of civil and electrical engineers
and construction workers. It was not an
2. PSE&G re-engineered substations to
make them more responsive and resilient. The
company is one of the nation's largest investors
in modern switchgear. Courtesy: PSE&G
easy task. To succeed, we had to overcome
three critical challenges:
■ Educate customers, stakeholders,
and the public about the realities of
more extreme weather caused by climate
change. This included detailing
how existing systems were vulnerable
to the frequency and intensity of
storms. For example, Sandy and Irene
had caused extensive flooding in nontraditional
flood zones. Since 2010,
PSE&G has experienced the five most
disruptive storms in its more than 100
years of operating history.
■ Raise awareness of the need to update
aging infrastructure. At a time
when customers' dependence on
electricity is increasing while their
tolerance
for
service
interruptions
is decreasing, the transmission and
distribution systems date back generations,
making them increasingly
vulnerable to extreme weather.
1. From utility poles to computer systems and communications networks, PSE&G has added
advanced technology that helps detect power outages, troubleshoot the cause, and restore
power faster. Courtesy: PSE&G
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■ Demonstrate that PSE&G could modernize
its networks to enhance resiliency
and reliability without severely
impacting rates. PSE&G executed
these major projects as efficiently and
cost-effectively as possible, and gas
bills remain the lowest in the region,
while electric bills are lower than average.
By finishing these improvements
on time, on budget, and on scope,
PSE&G is providing our customers a
more reliable utility service at a lower
overall cost, relative to our peers.
POWER | September 2022
http://www.powermag.com
POWER September 2022

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