Redefining resilience post COVID-19, and why adapting your data strategy matters

In 2020, resiliency has taken on expanded meaning as utility companies worldwide adopt new, evolving strategies for new, evolving norms.

Defined as “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness,” resilience is usually thought of in relation to the operator’s ability to bounce back from severe weather events and unexpected grid outages. Today, this operational pillar remains as important as it ever was. In August 2020, Tropical Storm Isaias battered the East Coast and caused more than two million power outages. That same month, Hurricane Laura, a Category 4 storm, pounded the Gulf Coast for hours, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power in Louisiana and Texas. Meanwhile, on the West Coast, California faced new, unexpected blackouts due to an intense heatwave, an overloaded grid and offline generation. Not only are these examples indicative of the pressures to come; they highlight the fact that operational resilience is a moving target, making it difficult to sustainably achieve related KPIs.

But because the complex grid system is composed of complicated, interrelated physical and digital elements, similar thinking about resilience should be applied to the workforce, customers and even the utility business model.

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