While the devastation of Hurricane Harvey and the West’s wildfires are fresh in our minds, it’s critical to start focusing on grid resiliency — and how distributed energy can contribute to it.
Utilities and state regulators right now focus more on grid reliability than grid resiliency, said Kelly Speakes-Backman, CEO of the Energy Storage Association (ESA). But the two are very different.
“Reliability is about normal operations and the grid being able to run with scheduled down times of generation and scheduled operations and maintenance — to be able to count on it when you’ve scheduled it,” she said.
Resilience is all about being able to withstand or recover from the unplanned
Resilience, on the other hand, is all about being able to withstand or recover from the unplanned—the hurricanes, storms and wildfires we’re experiencing more often and with more intensity right now. “Everything that is non-planned has to do with resilience,” she said. Surprise disturbances also include cyber and other attacks on the grid, she said.
Resilience is needed during these “extraordinary and hazardous catastrophes utterly unlike the blue sky days during which utilities typically operate,” said a 2014 report by the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, “Resilience for Black Sky Days.” The report suggests that state regulators consider investments in resilience.
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