California Must Increase Urgency of Actions to Address Continuing Effects of Climate Change
May 17 2022 - 12:40PM
Business Wire
Edison International examines the costs of
inaction, the need to modernize critical infrastructure and the
significance of collaboration among stakeholders
California must act with more urgency to address the continuing
effects of climate change because the cost of inaction is far
greater than the cost of action. That is according to Adapting for
Tomorrow: Powering a Resilient Future, a new white paper from
Edison International. The paper also underscores the need to
modernize the critical infrastructure that powers communities and
says that collaboration among utilities, regulators and
stakeholders must be increased.
“It is crucial to provide support to the most disadvantaged,
climate vulnerable communities through awareness and the
development of climate adaptation plans,” said Pedro J. Pizarro,
president and CEO of Edison International. “SCE (Southern
California Edison) is preparing the electrical grid to safely power
communities and meet their energy needs now and in the future. It
is imperative that the public, industry and community partners join
SCE to modernize critical infrastructure and adapt to the changing
climate.”
Adapting for Tomorrow: Powering a Resilient Future shares
important findings from SCE’s Climate Adaptation Vulnerability
Assessment (CAVA) on assets, operations and services throughout its
50,000-square-mile service area. The CAVA concludes that by 2050,
wildfires could leave large swaths of customers without necessary
services for long periods of time, rising sea levels could inundate
electrical facilities and extreme temperatures could reduce
electrical capacity. Energy companies will need to modernize
planning for the grid now to continue to safely provide reliable,
clean and affordable energy to customers.
“There are many ways we must act with more urgency to
incorporate projected climate conditions into our electric system
planning to ensure a resilient decarbonized grid,” said Erica
Bowman, director of the Edison International CEO’s Office and
principal author of Adapting for Tomorrow and last year’s Edison
policy paper, Mind the Gap. “Just one example among many, is
planning for increased extreme temperatures and heat waves. During
these events, electric loads will increase due to customer cooling
needs and transmission line capacity may need to be derated 10%-20%
due to operating limits. We need to anticipate these types of
compounding impacts and design our system accordingly.”
Successfully adapting while transitioning to a clean energy
economy requires updated planning processes and frameworks to
address these issues over the long term across all infrastructure —
energy, wastewater, fuel supplies and transportation corridors.
This will require increased collaboration among utilities,
regulators and stakeholders. Less than half of counties and only
one-quarter of cities in SCE’s service area have climate adaptation
and resilience plans.
An initiative of the Bay Area Council supported by SCE, the
California Resilience Challenge is in its second year providing
grant funding for projects that help underserved communities be
more resilient to climate change impacts, including fire, drought,
extreme heat and floods.
“Communities around the world are beginning to grapple with the
ways in which climate change will disrupt familiar ways of life,”
said Adrian Covert, senior vice president of Public Policy at the
Bay Area Council. “Edison’s support for research and planning
initiatives like Adapting for Tomorrow and the California
Resilience Challenge are helping ensure millions of Californians
stay ahead of climate change by strengthening their resilience to
droughts, heat waves, wildfires and flood risks.”
About Edison International
Edison International (NYSE: EIX) is one of the nation’s largest
electric utility holding companies, providing clean and reliable
energy and energy services through its independent companies.
Headquartered in Rosemead, California, Edison International is the
parent company of Southern California Edison Company, a utility
that delivers electricity to 15 million people across Southern,
Central and Coastal California. Edison International is also the
parent company of Edison Energy, a global energy advisory company
delivering comprehensive, data-driven energy solutions to
commercial and industrial users to meet their cost, sustainability
and risk goals.
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Media Contact: Diane Castro, (626) 302-2255
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