Abstract
Energy resiliency has been thrust to the forefront by recent severe weather events and natural disasters. Billions of dollars are lost each year due to power outages. This article highlights the unique value renewable energy hybrid systems (REHS), comprised of solar, energy storage, and generators, provide in increasing resiliency. We present a methodology to quantify the amount and value of resiliency provided by REHS, and ways to monetize this resiliency value through insurance premium discounts. A case study of buildings in New York City demonstrates how implementing REHS in place of traditional backup diesel generators can double the amount of outage survivability, with an added value of $781,200. For a Superstorm Sandy type event, results indicate that insurance premium reductions could support up to 4% of the capital cost of REHS, and the potential exists to prevent up to $2.5 billion in business interruption losses with increased REHS deployment.
Highlights
Electricity system resiliency focuses on preventing power disruption and restoring electricity supply as quickly as possible when an outage does occur, while mitigating the consequences of the outage
Fuel supply interruptions for generators, experienced during Hurricane Sandy, have emergency planners looking to renewable energy and other forms of distributed generation to play a larger role in energy resiliency [1]
Little work has been done to quantify the value of resiliency provided by renewable energy hybrid systems (REHS) during grid outages, as well as how that value compares to the value provided by traditional backup generation systems
Summary
Electricity system resiliency focuses on preventing power disruption and restoring electricity supply as quickly as possible when an outage does occur, while mitigating the consequences of the outage. Based on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) data, there have been, on average, six disasters that exceed $1 billion dollars per year since 1980. These types of disasters cause widespread, long-duration outages and lead to lost production, wages, and inventory. Current approaches are vulnerable to failure of unreliable, scarce equipment; interruptions in natural gas and diesel fuel supply chains; as well as aging infrastructure [3,4,5,6]. The current cornerstone of resiliency, fossil fuel backup generation, is useful for riding out short outages, but for longer outages these systems are vulnerable to refueling supply chains that can be, and have been, compromised due to physical damage of transportation and distribution infrastructure
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