Storm Readiness and Response

It’s what keeps utilities up at night: a storm has rolled through and your customers, dependent on you to keep the lights on and communication going, are without service. You want to get them back to their normal lives as soon as possible.

At Black & Veatch, we share this commitment. As a leader in critical human infrastructure devoted to Building a World of Difference™, we know how important your services are to your customers.

Whether preparing for or responding to hard times, we work as a trusted partner to help our clients plan and execute rapid recovery in a predictable manner. Our exemplary safety record is proof of our care for our professionals and the communities in which we work, allowing us to uphold our clients’ reputations.

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Planning

Our planning expertise allows our clients to ensure history doesn’t repeat itself and prepares them to respond more effectively.

Restoration

Our ability to pull on nationwide relationships allows us to bring immediate resources and provide value in the restoration process, restoring utilities safely and quickly.

System Hardening

In short, our support allows clients to ensure investments they make are able to demonstrate performance and success that stands up to scrutiny.

Our Services

System assessment and risk modeling
Operational efficiency and adoption
Training and testing
Preparedness check
Industry trends
Technology investment

Evaluate process/systems
Gap analysis
Process optimization
Tools and software
Resource
Resource deployment
Field assessment and prioritization
Record updates
Punchlist
Asset reconciliation
KPI’s
Performance validation
Best practices

Business case development
Technology session
Execution planning
Scope, cost and schedule
Design
Procurement
Construction
Record updates
Punchlist
Asset reconciliation
Asset management program
Monitoring and maintenance

Webinar

Predicting the Unpredictable: Managing Utility Risk in a Shifting Climate

Critical weather events are becoming more severe and frequent and are impacting our system in ways we never thought possible. Appropriately protecting your infrastructure (and future budgets) from risk can be hard to do. That's why in this webinar, we discuss four areas where we see this risk, how we've helped clients mitigate it, and what changes we see happening in the future: Temperature Extremes, Coastal Flooding, Transmission and Distribution Asset Vulnerability, and Environmental Stewardship.

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Perspective: Staying Covered When It Counts

Remote Monitoring Can Mitigate Reliability Issues During Extreme Weather Events

Extreme weather events are becoming increasingly more common and create unique operating challenges for power generation and industrial facilities by testing equipment designs, safe operating ranges, and control instrumentation limits. How can remote monitoring paired with data analytics help ensure continued operation in the face of weather challenges?

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Webinar

Asset Resiliency in Critical Weather Events

Extreme weather events are becoming increasingly more common. The United States alone has experienced hurricanes, wildfires, and arctic winter conditions that have resulted in significant impacts and failure to critical human infrastructure while simultaneously eroding the confidence of the customer. As a result, both community and economic stakeholders impacted demand that critical infrastructure owners be forward-thinking with planning and implementation to ensure asset resiliency in future events. This webinar identifies areas for investigation and offers implementation scenarios to thwart the economic, psychological, and humanitarian impacts of extreme weather events.

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Perspective

Five Steps to Affordable Grid Resiliency

Next-generation grids must cope with increasingly frequent and extreme weather events and global energy market shocks, all while managing new levels of variable load and generation (largely from the integration of renewables and the adoption of electric vehicles). Our team of industry insiders has identified the following five steps as options for improving grid resiliency in the short- to mid-term.

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Project Story

Lessons Learned: Proactive Texas Utility Weathers 2021 Winter Storm Decade After Freeze Issues

In Texas, the scene appeared almost apocalyptic: A powerful mid-February winter storm that blanketed the state with snow, ice and record low temperatures knocked out power and heat to millions of homes and businesses for days. But in the state’s far-western city of 680,000-resident El Paso, the outcome was far different. Civic leaders and the utility spent millions to winterize their generation, transmission and distribution assets, even if such winter storms are uncommon there.

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Perspective

Staying Ahead of Mother Nature in Your Design Basis

A shifting climate has created increased concerns for utilities and power infrastructure: hundred-year storms are now commonplace, Texas has experienced a record freeze, and hurricanes are becoming more destructive. These events are impacting our system in ways we never thought possible. Appropriately protecting your investment (and future budgets) from risk can be hard to do. But how can you learn to expect the unexpected?

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Perspective: T&D World Ask the Expert

Texas' Deep Freeze and Transmission in the Lone Star State

The deep freeze that gripped Texas in mid-February 2021 led to a series of cascading crises. The economic damage of this electric and human catastrophe could reach $200 billion, rivaling the most destructive hurricanes in U.S. history. Black & Veatch’s Power industry subject-matter experts Kevin Ludwig, Mark Dittus, and Sean Tilley take a deeper look at the importance of freeze protection to help ensure that power plants have the capability to operate throughout the possible range of environmental conditions. They also emphasize the importance of transmission expansion within ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) itself as renewable power grows in importance.

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