053 Electric Perspectives: Enhancing Industry Coordination and Building Resilience After Superstorm Sandy

Ten years ago, Superstorm Sandy brought severe winds and devastating flooding to New Jersey and New York. At one point, it engulfed 800 miles between the East Coast and the Great Lakes region, impacting customers in several additional states. The storm caused one of the most massive power outages in U.S. history, with about 8.5 million customers losing power at some point in parts of the Mid-Atlantic, Northeast, and the Ohio Valley. The electric power industry always has focused on strengthening its industry-government partnerships and on improving emergency response plans and processes, but Superstorm Sandy was a catalyst for rethinking how the industry organizes itself to manage major incidents. Those efforts resulted in significant enhancements over the past decade. 

 

On this episode, we are joined by American Electric Power Chair and CEO Nick Akins and EEI Senior Vice President of Security and Preparedness Scott Aaronson to discuss the lessons that the electric power industry learned from Superstorm Sandy, how the industry has worked with federal partners to improve emergency coordination, and how Superstorm Sandy forever changed the way electric companies plan for natural disasters.