When Hurricane Fiona struck Puerto Rico in 2022, it exposed the vulnerabilities of the island’s energy infrastructure.
When Hurricane Fiona struck Puerto Rico in 2022, it exposed the vulnerabilities of the island’s energy infrastructure. Though only a Category 1 storm, Fiona caused a total blackout across the island, leaving residents without power for days to weeks with far-reaching health, safety, and economic consequences.
Yet in the aftermath, the hurricane also provided a rare opportunity to learn about a power system during an extreme weather event. LUMA Energy, the private power company that since 2021 has been responsible for power distribution and power transmission in Puerto Rico, collected high-resolution outage data in 10-minute intervals as Fiona made landfall on the island.
A team of Princeton engineers is now using that information about Puerto Rico’s energy grid during Hurricane Fiona to help LUMA Energy and other system operators better understand their power grids in the face of increasingly frequent and severe climate extremes, from hurricanes to heat waves.
Read more at Princeton University, Engineering School
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