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Opinion: Weather proofing our utility grids is well worth the cost

Investing in our infrastructure and grid resilience and in research is vital for protecting us against disasters, writes Esam Hussein.

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Last February, Texas faced a winter freeze that immobilized power plant equipment and instruments, resulting in an estimated $18 billion in damages, not counting devastating personal losses. This would have been prevented if Texas has accepted a recommendation issued 10 years earlier by the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the North America Electric Reliability Corporation to winterize its power plants. It is likely that decision makers, given the rarity of such events, determined the cost of winterizing the power systems would not be justifiable. Seven months later, Hurricane Ida knocks out power in Louisiana and Mississippi, which may take weeks to restore. This time it was winds of up to 240 kilometres per hour that brought down transmission poles, disconnecting power stations.

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In Canada, a severe ice storm in January 1998 devastated the power grid from eastern Ontario to the Bay of Fundy. Thankfully, we have not had similar failures due to the efforts by our power utilities and their engineers to make our grids more resilient to ice storms. Another engineering success is the flood-defence network built in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which caused $160 billion in damages and claimed more than 1,800 lives in 2005. The revamped flood–defence system, consisting of pumps, dikes, levees, floodwalls and floodgates, which cost billions of dollars, has largely protected the city from Ida’s destructive storm surge.

With climate change, severe weather events are no longer rare. Regina and other parts of the province experienced this first-hand during a violent thunderstorm resulting in damages from hail, rain and wind on Aug. 31.

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The weather will continue to threaten us. The choice we have is to spend the money now to protect ourselves from what seems to be inevitable disasters, or to wait to the aftermath and face lost and destroyed lives and spend even more money repairing damaged buildings and other infrastructure. We may not be able to eliminate the risk everywhere and all the time, but we can minimize the damage.

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As was done in Canada to protect against ice storms, Florida Power & Light (FPL) is continuing a US$5 billion storm-hardening initiative since Hurricane Wilma hit the Gulf Coast in 2005. FPL is also investing an additional $1 billion annually in a 10-year storm hardening program that includes moving 300 to 500 power lines underground.

Engineering solutions exist, and yes their implementation can raise our power bills, but let us see that as an insurance worth paying. Electricity is the lifeblood of our civilization.

Investing in our utility infrastructure and grid resilience, in research and development, and in the education of our engineers, technologists and technicians is vital for protecting us against disasters. After all, foresight is better than hindsight.

Esam Hussein is the dean of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Regina.

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