Orange and Rockland Utilities releases study on impacts of climate change
A new study by Orange and Rockland Utilities (O&R) outlines the increasing risks caused by climate change and how the company must accelerate its investments to keep electric service reliable and resilient for customers.
The study, called the Climate Change Vulnerability Study, said devastating inland and coastal flooding events like those that occurred this past summer are expected to only get worse in the future. This summerʻs flooding events resulted in washed-out major roads, toppled trees, and poles and wires knocked out of service. The report stated that climate change is likely to drive stronger and more frequent storms in the region, bringing heavier rainfall and coastal storm surges. Further, deluge rains could be more frequent and intense.
“This most recent study provides alarming evidence that climate change will affect the lives of O&R customers sooner and more severely than we previously thought,” Robert Sanchez, O&R’s president and CEO, said. “That’s why O&R is thinking more boldly about ways to strengthen the reliability of our electric delivery system. We are ushering in new sources of renewable energy and making sure that every O&R customer can share in the benefits of a more sustainable grid.”
The study uses climate change projections developed by Columbia University and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. The company filed the study with the New York State Public Service Commission on Sept. 22. Later this year, it will file a Climate Change Resilience Plan identifying the measures it will take to further protect its equipment and its customers in Rockland, Orange and Sullivan counties from the rapidly rising flooding risk and other significant climate change impacts.
The study calls “an existential and multi-faceted threat around the world” will affect O&R customers and equipment in other ways. Along with flooding events, risks also include stifling heat waves, stronger destructive windstorms, and heavier damaging icing events, according to the O&R study.
The majority of the O&R system will see impacts due to rising temperatures. That, in turn, will cause an increase in electric loading and equipment degradation. Also, higher temperatures can decrease the capacity of cable, substation transformers and other equipment, meaning O&R has to invest in replacing that lost capacity. The heat can also cause the demand for power to exceed the system’s capacity. Further, it found that hurricanes could be more intense and more likely to track toward the Northeast.
The company has been fortifying its equipment for years, but climate change is prompting the company to accelerate the planning and execution of the upgrades.
O&R Utilities, a subsidiary of Con Edison, provides electric service to approximately 300,000 customers in southeastern New York State and northern New Jersey, and natural gas service to approximately 130,000 customers in New York.
