Climate and Disaster Risk Informed
Electric Grid Infrastructure Planning and Operations

February 20-21, 2024 Eastern Standard Time (Zoom) | Spanish and French simultaneous interpretation provided during the webinar

Summary: Resilient electric grid infrastructure requires investing in improved regulations, risk-informed strategic planning, improved access to and use of data for decision-making, monitoring assets and system vulnerabilities, strengthening the technical capacity to deliver and supervise infrastructure developments, and accelerating financing. The February 20-21 webinar will build on selected country cases to explore the challenges faced by developing and developed countries in rolling out resilient electric grid investments and strategies, and the new solutions available to electric utilities to anticipate, absorb, adapt to, and rapidly recover from a potentially catastrophic event while sustaining mission critical functions.

Tuesday February 20th

Wednesday February 21st

Registration Day 1
Registration Day 2

08:00h – 08:05h EST

Welcome and Introduction  

  • Ms. Gabriela Elizondo, Practice Manager, Latin America and Caribbean, The World Bank 

08:05h – 09:15h EST

Session 1a: Climate and disaster risk resilience – vulnerability analysis and resilience strategy

Experts discuss how to identify risks and vulnerabilities, the data needed to inform utility decisions regarding asset- and – system level risk, and ways to maximize economic value from resilience investments

Moderator: Ms. Morgan Scott, Director, Climate READi, Sustainability & Ecosystem Stewardship Electrification and Sustainable Energy Strategy, EPRI

Presenters:

  • Ms. Morgan Scott, Director, Climate READi, EPRI
  • Mr. Anish Mandal, Partner, Deloitte Touche India
  • Mr. Neil Weisenfeld, Senior Energy Resilience Expert, ICF
  • Mr. Rodrigo Espinoza, Manager of Operations, CEN, Chile 

09:15h –10:30h EST

Session 1b: Managing and Recovering from Disasters

Utility representatives discuss engineering and system operational solutions to reduce the vulnerability of power assets to stressors and increase the overall reliability of service

Moderator: Ms. Neha Mukhi, Senior Energy Specialist, Latin America and Carribean

Presenters:

  • Ms. Olena Pavlenko, President, DiXi Group, Ukraine
  • Mr. John Alexander Duarte, Energy Analyst, XM (Colombian Systems Operator)
  • Mr. Ümit Çetin Kaya, R&D Manager, TEIAS, Turkey
  • Dr. Cletus  Bertin, Executive Director, Caribbean Electric Utility Services Corporation (CARILEC)

10:30h –10:35h EST

Closing of day 1

Closing of day 1

Wednesday February 21st

Registration Day 2

22:00h –
23:10h  EST

Session 2:  System and Network Operators’ Perspective

System and Network Operators discuss new frameworks for addressing climate and disaster risk, the role of assessments to prioritize measures  and post-disaster system restoration strategies

Moderator: Mr. Simon Stolp, Practice Manager, South Asia region, World Bank

Presenters:

  • Mr. Takuma Hayashi, Manager of Engineering Center, Chubu Electric Power, Japan 
  • Mr. Ali Zain Banatwala, Deputy Managing Director for System Operations, NTDC, Pakistan
  • Mr. Abraham (Abe) Simpson, Managing Director AM Consultants, Former CEO Nauru Utilities Corporation, Fiji
  • Mr. Shirinbek  Mazambekov, DRR & GIS Unit Manager, Pamir Energy, Tajikistan

23:10h  – 23:15h EST

Closing of Day 2

Closing of Day 2

About UKEP: The Utility Knowledge Exchange Platform (UKEP), is a joint initiative by the World Bank EEX GP’s IEEGK, ESMAP’s Utilities for Energy Transition Program, and with support from the Quality Infrastructure Investment Partnership and the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, was launched in March 2022. It seeks to create a platform for electric utilities to promote peer-to-peer learning between utilities, regulators, and other practitioners. The UKEP is structured for electric utilities that are currently implementing a World Bank supported investment or reform program, to facilitate knowledge exchange and sharing of lessons learned from the application of technologies, strengthening of governance, and enabling regulatory framework.

If you have any questions, please email us at ukep@worldbank.org