Hurricane Joaquin Case Study

Earlier this month, Hurricane Joaquin had most of the population along the U.S. East Coast on the edge of their seats as it was upgraded from Category 1 to Category 4 (130 mile per hour winds) within a week’s time. Although the “storm of the century” eventually bypassed the U.S., Joaquin has, nonetheless, caused considerable damages along the way. It tore off roofs, uprooted trees, unleashed unrelenting rain leading to heavy flooding in South Carolina. It also swallowed up a 735-foot cargo ship with 33 missing people off the Bahamas.

The initial panic was understandable. It has only been three years since Hurricane Sandy hit the entire eastern seaboard, and the memory of the chaos caused by the superstorm is still fresh in many people’s minds. The Category 3 hurricane was the worst extreme weather event in U.S. history based on the total power outage: 8.5 million people in 21 states were left without electricity. It was also the second-costliest in history, with a total damage cost of $65 billion. Worst of all, it took the lives of 117 people.

What is particularly disconcerting is the fact that there has been a surge in the number and strength of Category

There are several major technology areas that have become important drivers of “smartening” and “hardening” the grid in the U.S. The first are smart meters and information communication technologies (ICT) that provide two-way and real-time communication between utilities and customers. The second are the geographic information system (GIS) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) that can provide locational data analysis and remote control capabilities. The third are the outage management system (OMS) and advanced distribution management system (ADMS) to monitor and evaluate faults on the