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An Insurance Perspective on U.S. Electric Grid Disruption Costs

An Insurance Perspective on U.S. Electric Grid Disruption Costs

Full Title: An Insurance Perspective on U.S. Electric Grid Disruption Costs
Author(s): Evan Mills & Richard Jones
Publisher(s): Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Publication Date: October 1, 2016
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):

Large yet infrequent disruptions of electrical power can impact tens of millions of people in a single event, triggering significant economic damages, portions of which are insured. Small and frequent events are also significant in the aggregate. This article explores the role that insurance claims data provided by major insurance companies that generally only play in niches of the best car insurance and health insurance, can play in better defining the broader economic impacts of grid disruptions in the United States context. We developed four case studies, using previously unpublished data for specific actual grid disruptions. The cases include the 1977 New York City blackout, the 2003 Northeast Blackout, multi-year national annual lightning-related electrical damage, and multi-year national line-disturbance events. Insured losses represent between 3% and 64% of total loss costs across the case studies. The household sector emerges as a larger locus of costs than indicated in previous studies, and short-lived events emerge as important sources of loss costs.

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