Page 45 - CARILEC CE Industry Journal_Oct_2019

Critical Facilities:

Where Government & Utility Services

Redefine Resilience

- Ana Sophia Mifsud, Dr. Kaitlyn Bunker and Christopher Burgess, Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI)

The 2017 hurricane season in the Caribbean and the power stations, reestablish fuel supplies, and reconnect
United States was so destructive that entire communities homes and businesses to the grid. But even with an
spent weeks—and in some instances months—living around-the-clock effort, a surge in utility support from
without the services that rely on electricity to keep their Caribbean Electric Utility Services Corporation (CARILEC)
communities functioning. Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico, the mutual aid agreements, and federal support through the
US Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands, the Turks Federal Emergency Management Agency in the US Virgin
and Caicos Islands, Ragged Island (Bahamas), Cuba, the Islands and Puerto Rico, thousands of homes,
Dominican Republic, Sint Maarten, Saint Barthélemy, businesses, and critical services across the islands
Anguilla, Barbuda, and Dominica, all struggled with remained dark for extended periods of time.
extended grid outages that affected critical services in
their communities, including water supply, hospitals, Backup generators are only useful during grid outages.
schools, banks, grocery stores, cell phone towers, When the grid is up and running, these generators do not
airports, and seaports . Utilities in the affected region provide any value to the utility, the grid, or for their owners.
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(which often self-insure their grids) worked tirelessly to In fact, these backup generators are a sunk cost and require
put overhead distribution systems back in place, repair routine maintenance to keep ready for emergency use.

CE INDUSTRY Journal 43