Climate Vulnerabilities and Resilience
This Climate Change Vulnerability Study (CCVS) builds on resilience work PSEG Long Island has undertaken on behalf of LIPA by analyzing asset and operational vulnerabilities to critical climate hazards. Specifically, this CCVS focuses on the climate hazards most salient for LIPA’s service area, which are extreme heat, cold temperatures, extreme precipitation, coastal and inland flooding, high wind, and ice.

By assessing climate vulnerabilities of assets, planning, and operations using updated climate science, this CCVS is a significant advance in the expanding effort of bolstering climate resilience across LIPA assets and operations. This CCVS will feed into the development of a Climate Change Resilience Plan (CCRP) and ground the assessment of which resilience measures to prioritize in the future.

Increasing System Reliability
Prior to this plan, PSEG Long Island had taken deliberate steps to prepare for and adapt to an increase in frequency and severity of extreme climate events. These steps include installing new transmission lines and distribution feeders, elevating and protecting substation equipment, and replacing and upgrading transmission and distribution structures to meet current standards. Using FEMA funding, PSEG Long Island has also hardened over 1,000 miles of mainline distribution to withstand more sustained winds and hurricane conditions and is continuing distribution storm hardening though the Power On program.

Through intentional upgrades and improvements to physical infrastructure and operations, PSEG Long Island has and will continue to increase system reliability, with the goal of minimizing customer outages.