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    3 Ways Boston University’s Online MBA Is A Disruptor In Business Education

    New Immigration Data Point To Larger U.S. Workforce Issues

    A Risk Management Nightmare at Silicon Valley Bank

    How CFOs are navigating the debt ceiling standoff

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      Heroes from Above But Not (Always) from Within? Gig workers’ reactions to the sudden public moralization of their work

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      To Encourage Patients to Fill Prescriptions, Fix Copays

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        Inflation Causes Drivers to Switch Car Insurance Carriers

        Inflation Causes Drivers to Switch Car Insurance Carriers

        The Right Amount of Cards, Cash and ID to Carry in Your Wallet

        Inside the Push to Make Everyone Friends at Work

        Strategies for Onboarding in a Hybrid World

        Strategies for Onboarding in a Hybrid World

        How do sustainable supply chains improve the continuity of supply and protect the environment?

        How do sustainable supply chains improve the continuity of supply and protect the environment?

        3 Ways Boston University’s Online MBA Is A Disruptor In Business Education

        New Immigration Data Point To Larger U.S. Workforce Issues

        A Risk Management Nightmare at Silicon Valley Bank

        How CFOs are navigating the debt ceiling standoff

        Opposing scientists find no clear evidence for gender bias in academic science

        Opposing scientists find no clear evidence for gender bias in academic science

        Benefits of Supply Chain Visibility

        Benefits of Supply Chain Visibility

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        Leadership Communications

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        Demotivating Effects of Relative Performance Feedback on Middle-Ranked Workers’ Performance

        Demotivating Effects of Relative Performance Feedback on Middle-Ranked Workers’ Performance

        S1:E1 CVS Paying the “Pink Tax” on Certain Products and the Evolution of the Electric Vehicle Industry

        AI: What is it and how will it impact business?

        Is Creativity in Advertising Dead in the age of AI?

        Is Creativity in Advertising Dead in the age of AI?

        How Higher Ed Can Contend with Learning Platforms

        How Higher Ed Can Contend with Learning Platforms

        How Companies Deal with Disruption

        How Companies Deal with Disruption

        Money: It’s created. It’s destroyed. But what is it?

        Money: It’s created. It’s destroyed. But what is it?

        Blockchain, Beyond Crypto

        Blockchain, Beyond Crypto

        S1:E1 CVS Paying the “Pink Tax” on Certain Products and the Evolution of the Electric Vehicle Industry

        S1:E2 What the FTX?

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        Inflation Causes Drivers to Switch Car Insurance Carriers

        Inflation Causes Drivers to Switch Car Insurance Carriers

        Should Companies Refrain From Making Political Statements?

        Should Companies Refrain From Making Political Statements?

        The Right Amount of Cards, Cash and ID to Carry in Your Wallet

        Inside the Push to Make Everyone Friends at Work

        Here’s Why Experts Say Russia and China’s Attempts to ‘De-Dollarize’ Global Markets are Going Nowhere

        5 ways Russia’s been sidestepping Western sanctions and keeping its economy alive, from switching to the Chinese yuan and dabbling in ghost trades

        Strategies for Onboarding in a Hybrid World

        Strategies for Onboarding in a Hybrid World

        3 Ways Boston University’s Online MBA Is A Disruptor In Business Education

        New Immigration Data Point To Larger U.S. Workforce Issues

        A Risk Management Nightmare at Silicon Valley Bank

        How CFOs are navigating the debt ceiling standoff

        Opposing scientists find no clear evidence for gender bias in academic science

        Opposing scientists find no clear evidence for gender bias in academic science

        Ethics Professor Raises Key Questions About the Future Use of AI

        Questrom marketing researcher explores the data-tracking debate

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          • All
          • Books
          • Harvard Business Review
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          Should Companies Refrain From Making Political Statements?

          Should Companies Refrain From Making Political Statements?

          Make It Safe for Employees to Speak Up – Especially in Risky Times

          Make It Safe for Employees to Speak Up – Especially in Risky Times

          Will Generative AI Create a New Era of Search Competition?

          Will Generative AI Create a New Era of Search Competition?

          A Better Approach to Customer-Centric Messaging and Engagement

          A Better Approach to Customer-Centric Messaging and Engagement

          How Coworking Spaces Impact Employee Well-Being

          How Coworking Spaces Impact Employee Well-Being

          Will Salary Transparency Laws Change Employee Compensation?

          Will Salary Transparency Laws Change Employee Compensation?

          Heroes from Above But Not (Always) from Within? Gig workers’ reactions to the sudden public moralization of their work

          Heroes from Above But Not (Always) from Within? Gig workers’ reactions to the sudden public moralization of their work

          To Encourage Patients to Fill Prescriptions, Fix Copays

          To Encourage Patients to Fill Prescriptions, Fix Copays

          Is Tesla’s Era of Dominance Coming to an End? What Experts Say

          Is Tesla’s Era of Dominance Coming to an End? What Experts Say

          Trending Tags

          Insights@Questrom
          Home Our Insights Business Challenges Social Impact

          Entergy New Orleans’ Failure to Protect its Power Grid and Customers Against Outages Following Hurricane Ida

          Z. Justin RenbyZ. Justin Ren
          November 5, 2021
          in Social Impact
          16
          A A
          Entergy New Orleans’ Failure to Protect its Power Grid and Customers Against Outages Following Hurricane Ida

          Entergy Electric Staging Area for electrical workers from across the country in Hammond, LA

          The impact of extreme weather events on infrastructure has grown increasingly relevant in recent years, driven by a surge in meteorological anomalies due to climate change. In this Insights@Questrom Q&A, Justin Ren, Associate Professor, Operations and Technology Management explains what the damage caused by Hurricane Ida reveals about the interplay between catastrophic hurricanes and the U.S. power grid.

          What did Hurricane Ida expose about Entergy New Orleans (ENO) and its failure to restore power to its customers?

          What Ida exposed was not unique to ENO, but common to almost all utilities in the US.  That is, in the event of an extreme natural disaster, how do utilities prepare before the event and restore after the event? As we know, with climate change such extreme climate events are happening more often.

          How will the government react to this failure?

          I have read reports that the city government of New Orleans is investigating the root causes of ENO’s failure, which is probably the right thing to do. But more importantly, in the longer term, the one major thing the government can do is to fund and build new and better power infrastructure. As a private company, ENO is primarily responsible for its shareholders. Therefore it lacks the incentives and resources to completely overhaul its system, which may cost tens of billions of dollars. This is where the government can come in and take up those big projects. 

          What lessons might other energy companies learn as a result?

          Because of climate change, we should expect to see more extreme and more frequent weather events such as hurricanes, heat waves and wildfires. Therefore, energy companies need to rethink, from a fundamental level, how to generate and transmit energy in a safe, clean and climate-resistant way. Let me give you a couple of examples. One, Pacific Gas & Electric, one of the largest utilities in the US, recently announced that they are going to bury 10,000 miles of its power lines so they do not spark wildfires in already drought-stricken regions in California. The other one is in the South, where Tampa Bay’s utility in Florida has been upgrading its distribution system by installing cement poles that can withstand Category 5 hurricane winds.

          How can companies better prepare for big storms in the future?

          Great question! Companies need to build up their resilience in their own capabilities as well as their own supply chains to better weather these disruptions. There are many strategies companies can pursue depending on their industries. For example, having multiple suppliers in different geographical regions can spread out risks. Some companies can perhaps shorten their supply chains by seeking local suppliers which reduces supply chain disruption risks caused by weather events.  

          Digital technology can also play an important role. By incorporating better forecasting (with AI algorithms, for example) into companies’ resource planning software, companies can dynamically adjust their procurement and inventory placement. For example, a retailer may start stocking up water and essential supplies and reduce inventories in other categories in anticipation of a storm.

          Also, particular to energy supply, companies can invest in “microgrids” that can isolate themselves from the big grid when there is a disruption of power and sustain themselves with their own power supply. During normal times, microgrids can generate electricity from renewable sources and supply clean energy back to the large grid. To give you a success example, when Hurricane Sandy hit the Mid-Atlantic in 2012, much of the New York City metro area lost power and forced several hospitals to evacuate.  But Long Island’s South Oaks Hospital kept its light on because it had installed its own microgrid earlier on. Now many more organizations are implementing such solutions. 

          Finally, it is important to realize that such big storms are part of the ongoing global warming due to greenhouse gas emissions. Knowing that, companies can do a variety of things to reduce their own carbon emissions. In the longer term, companies must collectively do so in order to reverse the global warming trend that causes the increasing occurrences of those storms. Companies can start by doing an audit on their carbon footprint, and assessing how and where they can reduce their emissions in the most cost-effective manner.  

          Tags: EnergyfeaturedJustin Ren
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          Z. Justin Ren

          Z. Justin Ren

          Justin Ren is an Associate Professor of Operations and Technology Management at Boston University Questrom School of Business.

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