Grid Resilience Technical Assistance Consortium

Pointerra

• Pointerra will collaborate with three electric utilities (Avangrid, Eversource, National Grid) and three university partners (Cornell University, University at Albany - State University of New York, and the University of Connecticut) to develop a cost-benefit methodology to determine the long-term resilience value of grid resilience investments in the Northeast.
• Pointerra will acquire LiDAR (light detection and ranging) technology and imagery data and use its Pointerra3D platform to automatically generate a digital twin of select circuits in each utility’s service territory. Pointerra’s utility and academic partners will then use these digital twins for modeling and simulation of resilience investments, such as asset hardening, line undergrounding, and vegetation management.

The University of Connecticut and University at Albany (The Research Foundation for the State University of New York):

• The University of Connecticut and University at Albany (The Research Foundation for the State University of New York) will work together to provide risk assessments and grid resilience investment guidance to several states in the Northeast, with each university bringing their respective strengths to the collaboration. 
• The University at Albany will use numerical weather prediction models to identify key trends across the states for different climate hazards and potential climate scenarios. 
• The University of Connecticut will use an outage prediction model, along with a risk assessment that takes into account the intersection of climate, outage, and socioeconomic risk, to drive grid resilience recommendations.

Baringa:

• Baringa will provide reports on grid resilience risks, vulnerabilities, and investments to enhance the decision-making of state energy offices in those regions. 
• Baringa will also provide a current and future state-of-the-grid report for several utilities, which will assess utilities’ resilience investment strategies and include a methodology to forecast financial impact to assets from climate risk.

Texas A&M University and Prairie View A&M University:

• Texas A&M University and Prairie View A&M University will provide grid vulnerability assessments and risk planning guidance to state energy offices.
• Grid modeling and resilience researchers from the two universities will meet individually with state officials to understand their grid resilience objectives and direct their modeling and simulation capabilities on priority regions for each state.
• Analysis will focus in the areas of risk assessment, state-of-the-grid assessments, resilience strategy tradeoffs, and valuing resilience investments.

Creation Energy, LLC:

• Creation Energy will develop standard templates and guides to assist tribes in applying for grid resilience grant funds and equipping critical facilities with back-up power. 
• These resources include a battery-sizing design tool, equipment specifications for indoor and outdoor designs, utility interconnection process guidance, and contractual templates for engaging with vendors.
• Creation Energy will also conduct outreach and assistance to tribes regarding using the templates to streamline procurement and deployment of their back-up power systems.