IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - September/October 2014 - 94

in my view (continued from p. 96)
Coastal storms can carry punishing
combinations of strong winds; flooding; and dense, wet snow. we must
understand the strength, track, and
frequency of future coastal storms and
design a resilient utility system.
we have superb engineers at Con
Edison who are capable of designing
improvements to protect our systems
against strong overhead storms, massive flooding, and temperatures of
100°. But we do not have the luxury of
designing the perfect system. This super system would cost tens of billions
of dollars, subjecting our ratepayers to
unaffordable bill increases.
we must balance our customers'
need for resilient energy systems with
cost. That requires wise risk-based
decisions about which improvements
we make.

Distributed customer-sited projects
such as solar panels and combined heat
and power systems have the potential
to help our system remain reliable on
summer's hottest days. The ability to
isolate sections of our electric system,
such as with microgrids, can protect
customers from coastal storm flooding
and tree damage like our area experienced during Sandy.
Electrical vehicles can also help
against climate change by reducing emissions. Additionally, less reliance on gasoline when supplies are short, such as in the
days following Superstorm Sandy, supports an improved response effort when
thousands of repair vehicles are engaged
in 24/7 operations support.
The utility of the future will take
advantage of the best technologies to
keep service reliable and control costs.

opportunities such as leveraging distributed resources, deploying monitoring and control systems, and installing microgrids and reconfigurable
systems are already under review. The
resilience our customers need will require a highly interactive grid that is
able to accommodate two-way flows
of electricity.
Utilities have always found ways
to make the delivery of energy safe,
reliable, and efficient. But now our industry faces a new challenge, which is
protecting our customers against climate change.
Con Edison plans to be a leader, just
as we were when Thomas Edison installed dynamos at the Pearl Street generating station in Lower Manhattan.
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - September/October 2014