As workers struggle to restore power in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, companies and government agencies are looking for ways to make the islands’ power grids more resilient and better able to withstand future storms. Rather than wait for the government go-ahead, some companies are preparing plans for when they get the green light and reaching out to private industry.
“In our minds, it is an almost perfect setting to demonstrate what the future of power grids could be,” says Tom Lewis, president of Louis Berger U.S. In addition to being the Army Corps of Engineers contractor on the agency’s emergency generator mission, the company is readying itself with a tool box of approaches to help harden the grids in Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands.