PEARL RIVER – Devastating inland and coastal flooding events like the July 2023 thunderstorms that washed out major roads, toppled dozens of trees, ripped up Orange and Rockland Utilities poles and wires and knocked out power to thousands of O&R customers, are expected to only get worse in the future due to climate change, meaning O&R must accelerate its investments to keep electric service reliable and resilient for customers, the company says in a study published Friday.
The flooding risk in O&R’s service area is compounded by the study’s prediction that climate change is likely to drive stronger and more frequent storms in the region, bringing heavier rainfall and coastal storm surge. Deluge rains could be more frequent and intense. Nor’easters could be less frequent, but more intense when they do occur.
O&R said the findings of the study have “significant implications” for the company’s electric system.
Here’s the study: 2023-vulnerability-full-study.pdf (azureedge.net)
“This most recent study provides alarming evidence that climate change will affect the lives of O&R customers sooner and more severely than we previously thought,” said Robert Sanchez, O&R’s president and CEO. “That’s why O&R is thinking more boldly about ways to strengthen the reliability of our electric delivery system. We are ushering in new sources of renewable energy and making sure that every O&R customer can share in the benefits of a more sustainable grid.”
O&R will file the study with the New York State Public Service Commission and later this year will file a Climate Change Resilience Plan identifying the measures it will take to further protect its equipment and its customers in Rockland, Orange and Sullivan counties from the rapidly rising flooding risk and other significant climate change impacts.
