RPower’s Post

🔌 2.3 million Texans are w/o power due to Hurricane Beryl. And it's just the start of the Atlantic hurricane season. Our hearts go out to everyone affected. 💔 Beryl hit Texas as a Category 1 storm, but it started as the earliest Category 5 storm on record. 🤯 Thomas Gleeson, Chairman of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, says restoring power will take days. Texas utility CenterPoint Energy has borne the brunt of the outages, with 2 million customers in the dark. Extreme weather events are pushing our infrastructure to its limits. And it’s forcing us to rethink our approach to utility mapping and infrastructure resilience. The reality: 𝐖𝐞 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐞𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐰. We need innovative solutions to build stronger, more resilient infrastructure that can withstand the next storm. (𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝑨𝑰 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒚.) Curious about how you can make a difference? ➟ Tune in to see how MasTec and Michael B. Acosta, P.E., use AI to fast-track Florida's undergrounding projects and strengthen America's infrastructure. 𝐑𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧: https://lnkd.in/euXK6E93 P.S. Share your thoughts. How do you think we can build resilient infrastructure to better prepare for future storms? __ #HurricaneBeryl #Infrastructure #Utilities #UtilityAI

𝘾𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙋𝙤𝙞𝙣𝙩 𝙐𝙣𝙫𝙚𝙞𝙡𝙨 𝘼𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙋𝙡𝙖𝙣 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙄𝙢𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙙 𝙃𝙪𝙧𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙣𝙚 𝙋𝙧𝙚𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙚𝙙𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨 Following criticism over its response to Hurricane Beryl, CenterPoint Energy is taking immediate steps to enhance hurricane preparedness. CEO Jason Wells announced a comprehensive plan with 40 actions divided into immediate, near-term, and long-term phases to improve resiliency, communications, and partnerships. The plan emphasizes urgency and accountability. While experts acknowledge the positive steps, they highlight the need for regulatory changes to ensure lasting improvements. Key concerns include the $800 million spent on generators, which were less mobile than required. State senators are pushing for CenterPoint to cover this cost instead of passing it to customers. Beryl-related costs are estimated at $1.8 billion, with plans to request a bond to recover up to $1.7 billion, potentially increasing customer bills by 2% over the next 15 years. #HurricanePreparedness #CenterPointEnergy #DisasterResponse #EnergyResilience #UtilityRegulation #CustomerImpact #HurricaneBeryl #EmergencyManagement #HoustonEnergy #RegulatoryChanges https://lnkd.in/gkUc3ZUt

🌩️ In the face of Hurricane Milton, resilience powered by Sonnen 🌩️ When over 3 million people in Florida lost power during Hurricane Milton, a community in Cortez stood strong, thanks to Sonnen’s innovative battery systems. As the storm knocked out the grid, homes in Hunters Point instantly switched to solar-powered batteries, keeping lights on and essentials running. With hurricanes becoming more frequent, Sonnen’s technology offers peace of mind. In under a second, the power flips, ensuring uninterrupted energy. In the morning, solar panels recharge the batteries, enabling homes to operate off-grid even during extended outages. This is the future of energy resilience, and Sonnen is leading the way. 🌞🔋 https://lnkd.in/gsP_qhhy #HurricaneResilience #Sonnen #SolarEnergy #EnergyIndependence #Sustainability #CleanEnergy #ClimateResilience

I recently spoke to Ivan Penn at NYT about Hurricane Beryl’s impact to Texas, and the need for US utilities to invest in resiliency improvement programs. For a Category 1 storm to result in million plus customer outages needing upwards of a week to restore indicates that utilities should be looking at resiliency programs in terms of system hardening, restoration process efficiencies, and identifying islands of resiliency to minimize the “customer misery zone”.   Here’s a link to the full article: https://nyti.ms/3XU0AE8 If you have any questions, please get in touch. #Utilities #Extremeweather #Gridresilience

#GridResilience is not just about preventing outages – it’s also about how we recover. Check out this video as I walk through the events of Hurricane #Milton from the calm before the storm to the recovery from widespread power outages. After Milton made landfall at 8:30 PM on October 9, outages spiked dramatically, affecting about 3.4 million customers (over 10 million people). Thanks to the tireless efforts of utility lineworkers, who worked day and night under dangerous conditions, over half of the affected customers saw power restored within 2-3 days. By the end of Columbus Day weekend, nearly 90% had their power back. For the hardest-hit areas, restoration can take weeks, especially when severe flooding is involved in what has been described as 1-in-1,000 year rainfall for the Tampa area. #EnergyPolicy #PowerReliability #UtilityPlanning #Infrastructure

A very challenging situation in Houston. Grid #resiliency will continue to be front of mind for all #utilities as extreme weather grows more frequent and our nation's electric infrastructure ages. And, increasingly, customers will invest in their own resiliency solutions (#microgrids, #DERs, #V2X, etc.) where loads are too important and utilities are not able to do enough.

Beam Global EV ARC™ systems in the south eastern United States continued to operate during Hurricane Helene. For example, EV ARC™ systems at the Bay Pines Florida Veterans Affairs Health Care in Big Bend, an area located in the direct path of Hurricane Helene, remained operational, sending data and continuing to provide a vital source of emergency power throughout the storm even while submerged in eight feet of storm surge. “Hurricane Helene tested our EV ARC product like never before, and it did not disappoint,” said Beam Global CEO Desmond Wheatley. “Even when the systems were buffeted by hurricane winds and submerged in eight feet of water with waves crashing over them, these vital infrastructure products continued to operate. Our customers were able to log in remotely and verify that the systems remained online throughout the storm, providing essential power. Beam Global’s products are becoming more and more relevant as global electricity demand increases and the job of providing it the traditional way becomes more challenging because of natural disasters and capacity constraints.” Our thoughts are with all those affected, and we are proud that our solutions offer resilience and support to communities when they need it most. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/eKdAGASz #SustainableEnergy #ClimateResilience #EnergySecurity #HurricaneHelene #InfrastructureSolutions #BeamGlobal

StormImpact provides pre-storm predictions and post-landfall visualization of power outages. Thanks Scott Hull for putting this together! 

Watch the timelapse map 🕛 🕧 🕒 🕟 of the energy outages across Florida during Hurricane Helene, compiled by FindEnergy.com. The data shows the sheer extent of the power losses across the Sunshine State over a 24-hour period. For more information about the impact of Hurricanes Milton and Helene on the insurance industry, read the report here: https://lnkd.in/e4qAXvrF #insurtechinsights #natcat #energyoutage #florida #hurricanehelene

From Cold Call to Call for Help The extract below is from our latest news article, I am very proud to be part of a compassionate team that go the extra mile for our clients. We provide operational support to help you to maintain your valuable gas and electric assets, the first step is usually our introductory call or message, please take time to consider the value of what we provide. Hurricane Helene: Our team received an urgent, late-night call from one of our southern utility customers on Friday, it was clear that the situation called for immediate action. This was not about business or contracts — it was about human lives and the urgent need to help protect them. Our dedicated project science team and responsive satellite imagery providers rallied to support our customer in a difficult situation. By early Saturday evening, mere hours after the request, we delivered actionable analyses of satellite imagery directly to disaster response teams, ensuring that vital infrastructures like dams and power transmission lines remained secure in the face of rising floodwaters. It was a testament to what can be achieved when individuals and organizations work together with a shared mission — to provide support and mitigate the impact of such catastrophic natural events. Our thoughts and best wishes go to everyone impacted by Hurricane Helene #vegetationmanagement #encroachmentmonitoring #reducingcustomerminuteslost #protectingassets #assetmanagement