Keeping Businesses Powered and Profitable During and After a Natural Disaster
October 10, 2017
As we come up on the five-year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy, and we are living through one of the most damaging Hurricane Seasons on record, do you know what you would do to ensure continuity of operations during and after a natural disaster? When “the big one” comes to Boston, will your business have the lights on?
Business continuity is the capability of an organization to continue delivery of products or services at acceptable predefined levels following a disruptive incident. Whether you’re a hospital, financial institution, law or design firm, educational institution, or a commercial property owner, to maintain business continuity in 2017, your facilities need a reliable supply of power. Beyond physically hardening your assets and installing short-term on-site generation or storage, how can you position your buildings to maintain electric service as you weather a storm and its fallout?
Start by learning:
- Your grid: Where is the substation that feeds into your building? How many other buildings are connected to that asset? Are your local distribution lines buried?
- Your restoration priority and timeline: Are you or your neighbors considered “critical” facilities? Where do your facilities stand on the priority list for restoration? How long should you prepare to be without grid-supplied power in the event of a severe weather event?
- Who makes which calls and who should you call in the event of an outage: Under whose jurisdiction are your vulnerabilities? Should you be communicating with the federal, state, or city government emergency management agencies or would working directly with your electric utility be the most productive?
To help provide our members with access to decision-makers to learn how to bridge gaps, A Better City is hosting an exclusive member meeting on October 19 at PwC with state and utility leaders.
We are excited to welcome Kurt Schwartz, the head of our own Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) to present on how the Commonwealth manages a response effort, and what businesses can do during and after a disaster to ensure their companies and buildings are up and running. Then, Peter Clark, the SVP of Engineering & Emergency Preparedness at Eversource will address the electric utility side and how our members can position their businesses for a resilient and reliable energy supply.
By: Miriam Posner, Director of Energy & Environmental Policy
mposner@abettercity.org
