New York Climate Resiliency Plan
National Grid filed our Climate Change Resilience Plan (Plan) with the NYPSC on November 21st 2023. The Plan proposes capital investments to address priority vulnerabilities (i.e., (1) extreme heat, (2) inland flooding, (3) high winds, and (4) ice) identified in the Company’s September 22, 2023, Climate Change Vulnerability Study (Study).
The Plan proposes incremental resilience investments over 5-, 10-, and 20-year time horizons. The majority of the proposed investments are based on enhancing design standards for projects that are otherwise in the Company’s investment plans for other reasons (e.g., increasing temperature ratings for transformers already slated for replacement, or increasing the strength standards for poles to be replaced for asset condition reasons), but also includes some new investment areas (e.g., flood protection walls around substations and targeted D-line undergrounding in very high exposure areas).
The PSC has 11 months to consider the Plan and either approve, modify, or reject it.
It is crucial that National Grid maintains the continuity of energy delivery services to our customers and the communities we serve. And building network infrastructure that is reliable and resilient is more important than ever as we face more severe weather events in the face of climate change.
National Grid is committed to urgent action to address climate change as we’ve outlined in our vision for a fossil free future, but we all must recognize that climate change is no longer a future threat but a current threat based on the extreme climate hazards we are witnessing today.
To address these goals and challenges, National Grid launched its climate vulnerability study to help prepare for the increase in severe weather expected from climate change. The study will provide a new way for us to evaluate the Company’s electric infrastructure, design specifications, and procedures to better understand our electric system’s vulnerability to climate-driven risks.
Based on the study results, we will be creating a Resilience Plan that will be submitted to the New York Public Service Commission (PSC).
This page will serve as the central source for our process and plans, aligned to the following timeline:
February 2023: Climate Resilience Working Group (CRWG)
- Utilities to establish working group to advise on resilience plan
September 2023: Climate Change Vulnerability Study
- Evaluate infrastructure, design specifications, and procedures to identify vulnerabilities
- Include adaptation measures to address vulnerabilities, feeds into Resilience Plan
November 2023: Climate Change Resilience Plan
- Propose storm hardening measures for next 10 and 20 years
- Detail how climate change reflected in planning, design, operations, & emergency response
- Address impacts on costs, outage times, potential for undergrounding lines, etc.
- Additional requirements the PSC may identify
PSC to approve or modify Resilience Plan within 11 months of filing
Meeting Presentations and Recordings:
Climate Change Vulnerability Study
October 18th, 2023 CRWG Meeting
Previous Presentations and Recordings:
- Climate Change Vulnerability Study and Resilience Plan, Community Leader Update, August 2023
- Climate Resilience Working Group Update, August 2023
- June 5th CRWG Meeting [
Recording] - 2-13-23 Stakeholder Climate Resilience Working Group Presentation
- Climate Vulnerability and Resilience Plan Working Group (CRWG) Overview
- 8-17-22 Community Leader Webinar Presentation [ Recording]
- 12-14-22 Climate Change Vulnerability Study & Resilience Plan Presentation
Please email us at box.NYClimateresiliency@nationalgrid.com if you would like to be invited to our Climate Resilience Working Group.
Frequently Ask Questions:
It’s crucial that National Grid continues to reliably deliver energy that our customers and communities need. By performing this study, we can develop an understanding of the new climate science and projected extreme weather, assess the potential impacts of climate change on operations, planning, and physical assets, and consider benefit-cost analysis for everyday planning and operations to improve resilience.
The impacts of climate change and events that impact our networks can take on many forms. The study and plan will consider a variety of potential climate-driven factors, ranging from severe temperatures, humidity, precipitation, flooding, and extreme weather events like the recent Winter Storm Elliott.
Get Involved
You may also file comments with the Public Service Commission in case # 22-E-0222 by going to the following link: https://documents.dps.ny.gov/public/Comments/PublicComments.aspx?MatterCaseNo=22-E-0222
Enabling our customers and communities to meet their heating needs without using fossil fuels by 2050.
Read more about our energy vision