Evaluating Electric Power Infrastructure Risk Mitigation Investments

Electricity is an integral part of our modern society. Our power infrastructure in the U.S. is repeatedly stressed by hurricanes. They cause widespread and prolonged outages annually that often lead to debilitating socio-economic consequences in our society. The potential impacts of climate change on the intensity and frequency of hurricanes have raised concerns over the ability of our energy sector to meet future demand. It has been hypothesized that wetland restoration and infrastructure hardening measures may improve infrastructure resilience to increased hurricane frequency and intensity. In this talk, we describe the results of our decision analysis model used to assess the tradeoffs between wetland restoration and infrastructure hardening for electric power networks and discuss further studies needed to address this research question.