Our Climate Change Resiliency Plan
Climate change has caused an increase in the frequency and severity of extreme weather events. In 2023 alone, a record 28 events caused over $1 billion worth of damage nationwide. To address the growing frequency of extreme weather events, we’ve adopted a more forward-looking approach to system resiliency to ensure our energy remains safe, reliable and resilient through the 21st century, and beyond.
What does this mean for you? Fewer power outages when storms strike, and less damage to our equipment—so if the lights do go out, we can make repairs more quickly to get you back up and running sooner.
In 2023, O&R released a Climate Change Resilience Plan, which builds on our prior resiliency efforts. Our portfolio of resiliency investments and multi-pronged approach to address the impacts of climate change will help our company continue to provide safe, reliable, and resilient energy to our customers now and in the future. This comprehensive plan aims to prevent, mitigate, and respond to climate vulnerabilities in our service area by identifying short, intermediate and long-term resilience investments.
READ THE CLIMATE CHANGE RESILIENCE PLAN
Our Resilience Journey
Over the past 10 years we’ve invested more than $83 million in New York and more than $58 million in New Jersey to make our systems more resilient.
Additionally, in accordance with state legislation, we collaborated with NYSERDA and Columbia University to develop a Climate Change Vulnerability Study that, in conjunction with our Climate Change Resilience Plan, evaluates our present-day infrastructure, design specifications, and operations against expected climate changes.
By gaining insight into the projected impacts of climate changes across our service area—including increasing temperatures, heavier precipitation, and more frequent and intense weather events—we can identify system vulnerabilities and prioritize investments to strengthen our electric infrastructure.
READ THE 2023 CLIMATE CHANGE VULNERABILITY STUDY SUMMARY
READ THE 2023 CLIMATE CHANGE VULNERABILITY STUDY FULL TEXT
Our Initiatives
- Adopted a climate change planning and design guideline to refine the tools, methods, and approaches of incorporating resilience and adaptation into the business.
- Established a climate change governance structure to incorporate climate change into existing processes and practices.
- Continue to take proactive steps to increase the resilience of our energy infrastructure by incorporating climate-change adaptation measures, tools, and approaches into engineering and planning.
- Construct new assets and enhance existing infrastructure to better withstand the physical impacts of climate change.
- Implement the resilience investments outlined in the Resilience Plan and maintain a safe and resilient electric grid.
Orange and Rockland Climate Resilience Working Group
Strengthening our electric grid against the impact of climate change and extreme weather requires collaboration between our company, regulators, municipalities, local organizations and customers. In August 2022, O&R convened a panel of stakeholders to serve on the Climate Resilience Working Group (CRWG), which provided input to both the 2023 Climate Change Vulnerability Study and the 2023 Climate Change Resilience Plan.
Our stakeholder engagement effort is designed to identify stakeholders’ key concerns, challenges, and goals; collect and consider the best and most effective practices and expertise; integrate stakeholder feedback; and provide transparency and insight on the climate study process and outcomes.
O&R continues to be committed to learning more about your concerns regarding climate vulnerability and energy grid resilience.
If you are interested in joining the Climate Resilience Working Group, or have inquiries regarding our climate study and resilience planning efforts, please email us.