Planning For Power Emergencies

Planning for Power Emergencies

Focus: Resilience

ADOPTING RESILIENCE IN THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA

A significant aspect of adopting resilience strategies for the ASCE Grand Challenge is planning for a wide range of possible scenarios. While city officials do not oversee the local power grid, the energy conservation coordinator for the city of Philadelphia has started creating contingency plans for what every city office must do in the case of a power outage.

In addition, the city’s Office of Emergency Management established a local energy access plan to coordinate a widespread emergency response. An important step in this process happened in 2008: PECO, the city’s energy provider, installed smart meters in every residence and business to help inform residents on how much power they are utilizing, while also helping officials determine where power outages are across the city. These new initiatives increase the city’s resilience in times of need and are perfectly aligned with the aims of the ASCE Grand Challenge.

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SourceASCE Game Changers