Category: Weather

Utilities face weather challenges regularly, and with global climate change, that danger is increasing. Optimizing your power restoration process and making confident, data-based decisions is key to reducing the damage to your service territory. With Storm Impact Analytics, your utility will be able to rise to the challenge and provide the best service to your customers.

Mississippi’s Cooperative Energy quickly restores power with DTN TornadoTrax and Esri ArcGIS.

The weather is so unpredictable. You never know what the weather will be like next week, or even tomorrow for that matter. For most of your life, not having a reliable weather forecast is relatively low-risk. For example, you may not have an umbrella when you need it, but you can still carry on with your day relatively unscathed. However, as someone who works in the utility industry, the risks are much higher. For example, lengthy power outages in a particular area can lead to severe and widespread damage when there is no power for weeks after a big storm.

Game time was fast approaching. Should the club hold the game or cancel it for inclement weather? The best weather report they could find showed there was a chance the cold weather would shift more to the north. Not wanting to disappoint the fans, management made the decision, game on! But an hour and a half into the game, shivering fans in the stands, and turf conditions tell otherwise.

As the world has seen in the last few years, world conditions and weather continue to present new challenges to the tourism industry, especially cruise lines. However, the travel industry continues to lead the way in adapting to new global conditions, and they have made significant advancements to ensure their guests can continue traveling in a safe, enjoyable environment. 

According to the US Department of Energy (DOE), power outages cost more than $150 billion each year. Therefore, it’s critical for utilities to maintain safety and convenience for their customers and their bottom line. You cannot avoid winter weather, so what can be done? How can your utility successfully weather the storm? Storm Impact Analysis is one tool that has been proven to better plan staffing and power restoration with specific predictions.

When extreme weather strikes, utilities must jump into action and ensure power restoration as quickly as possible. The risk is ever-present and ever-growing as climate change, and rising customer expectations become more common. During a storm, the problem quickly comes into focus: the severe weather. While weather intelligence is vital to optimizing your response and is a large piece of the puzzle, it is only one piece.

Using blockchain technology, real-time weather data can be readily accessed and is driving renewed interest in parametric insurance.

When facing a storm, machine learning can be the difference between storm damage and storm preparedness. As utilities head into storm season, machine learning can help them better position themselves to handle storms of all kinds coming their way. The result is a better-prepared organization that minimizes damage during storms! In addition, your power restoration process will be more efficient, which means safer and happier customers.

While you cannot prevent power outages, how you react will go a long way towards putting your consumers’ minds at ease and maintaining that customer relationship. Of course, optimizing your power restoration process begins with the correct data. Storm Impact Analytics allows you to know where extreme weather will hit your area and how hard, allowing you to quickly respond and get the right resources in place.