DOE, USAID launch resiliency scorecard for energy facilities
By Alena Mae S. Flores – July 31, 2024, 7:50 pm
from manilastandard.net
The Department of Energy (DOE) teamed up with the Task Force on Energy Resiliency (TFER) and the United States Agency for International Development – Energy Secure Philippines (USAID-ESP), to launch the Energy Resiliency Scorecard (ERS) for energy facilities.
The DOE said in a statement Wednesday the initiative would strengthen energy systems and climate resilience across the sector by providing a standardized benchmark for measuring energy resilience.
The ERS is a self-assessment tool designed to evaluate energy facilities’ readiness to prepare for, withstand, and recover from natural or human-induced disruptions.
It gauges energy resilience across seven critical pillars: infrastructure strengthening, systems, disaster risk financing and insurance, stockpiling, response, rehabilitation and cyber resilience.
It also offers benchmarking against both local and international resilience standards, drawing inspiration from models such as the DOE’s Resiliency Compliance Plan (RCP), which emphasizes preparedness before, during and after disruptive events.
“With the ERS, energy facilities can determine their current resilience levels and identify areas for improvement by applying scores to standardized criteria and indices,” said Energy undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella.
“This tool helps facilities identify strengths, pinpoint gaps, and prioritize improvements to achieve greater energy resilience,” he said.
The implementation of the ERS began with a pilot test involving nine distribution utilities and generation and transmission facilities in Leyte.
The DOE said results showed varying levels of resilience, with some participants achieving an “Advanced” rating while others were at “Intermediate” levels.
The pilot was later expanded to include Regions 1, 2, 3 and the Cordillera Administrative Region.
The finalized scorecards for electric cooperatives will be launched in September, with those for power generation and transmission facilities planned for next year.
Isabela I Electric Cooperative, one of the participants in the pilot testing said the scorecard plays a crucial role in conducting vulnerability risk assessments and preparing emergency restoration plans and provides clear benchmarks and metrics for measuring resilience, supporting informed decision-making and effective resource allocation.
