Today's interview is with Morgan Scott, Vice President Sustainability & Global Outreach and Chief Sustainability Officer at EPRI.
Who is EPRI?
Who is EPRI, and can you share more about your mission?
EPRI is a research organization that follows the science to help power society toward a reliable, affordable, and resilient energy future. Founded in 1972, EPRI collaborates with over 450 companies across 45 countries, driving innovation to ensure the public has safe, reliable, and affordable access to electricity around the globe. Our mission is to benefit society by providing independent, objective thought leadership and industry expertise through a highly collaborative approach.
Climate READi Initiative
What motivated EPRI to launch the Climate READi initiative, and what are its primary objectives?
EPRI launched Climate READi to help build a more resilient and reliable electric grid in consideration of extreme weather events and society's growing dependence on electricity. Motivated by its mission to benefit society, the Climate READi Framework aims to strengthen the power sector's collective approach to managing physical climate risk by providing a comprehensive methodological approach to assessing physical climate risk. The initiative seeks to provide energy companies, regulators, investors, and other stakeholders with science-based insights to identify optimal adaptation and resilience investments. EPRI's collaborative model brings together global thought leaders and scientific researchers to build an informed and consistent approach.
Collaboration
Who is involved in Climate READi?
For three years, EPRI has convened a collaboration of more than 40 power companies and 100 stakeholders through the Climate READI Affinity Group (CRAG) to develop a common, consistent, and collaborative framework. The CRAG is comprised of individuals from diverse backgrounds, from academia, consulting, and regulation to national labs and others, each bringing their expertise to address the critical challenge around resilience and adaptation for the energy sector. See them all here.
Extreme Weather
What are some of the most promising strategies for strengthening power assets against extreme weather events?
Selecting an adaptation strategy will depend on a wide variety of factors – the same strategy is not necessarily right for every company or every asset. However, there are some baseline considerations that often hold true:
Proactive climate adaptation involves investing in resilience measures and using predictive analytics to anticipate impacts – and is consistently demonstrated to be lower cost thanrespond and repair (REPORT).
Infrastructure hardening and design upgrades enhance existing systems with advanced materials and technologies for better durability.
Integrated system planning in corporate climate data, asset vulnerability information, and harmonized assumptions into power system models to understand and mitigate risks.
Continuous monitoring establishes robust systems to track conditions and refine strategies based on real-time data and feedback.
Focus
What is the focus of the Climate READi Framework?
The Framework provides a comprehensive set of guidance, references, and tools for power system practitioners and industry stakeholders to assess and model risks from current and potential future climate conditions. It organizes its research into three focus areas:
- Physical Climate Data and Guidance: Offers scientifically grounded insights for selecting appropriate climate data for power system modelling.
- Asset Vulnerability & Exposure: Inventories common vulnerabilities and adaptation options for individual asset classes.
- System Planning and Investment Prioritization: Guides on the integration of climate data and asset vulnerability information into power system models to evaluate overall system resilience and inform investment decisions.
Emerging Technologies
What emerging technologies do you see as game-changers for climate resilience?
Conventional technologies are already available to enable the power system to adapt to evolving weather conditions. However, emerging technologies like AI are poised to be critical for climate resilience. AI-powered wildfire early warning systems, which integrate high-resolution satellite imagery, weather forecasts, and physics-based fire behaviour models, provide real-time data for operational decision support. Additionally, we see multiple efforts to use AI techniques to more efficiently increase the resolution of climate datasets and generate data for climate hazards that have historically been difficult to project in the future (e.g., tornadoes). These technologies collectively enhance the ability to anticipate, prepare for, and respond to various climate-related challenges.
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