RAPID: Implications of Utilities Decision-making and Communication Strategies in Urban Populations Response under Extreme Weather Events

该快速反应研究（Rapid）项目将调查当地公用事业公司如何在极端天气事件下制定其通信战略计划和决策，并确定通信和决策方法中的低效率，以加强通信并确保更公平的结果。2021年春季由极地涡旋引起的极端天气事件影响了德克萨斯州的能源和水基础设施，使数百万德克萨斯州人无法获得这些基本服务。导致社区所受影响加剧的一个问题是公用事业公司与社区之间的沟通不足。RAPID项目旨在了解电力公司与社区客户之间的沟通方式效率低下，以及电网故障导致停电时的决策。从这项工作中获得的经验知识将支持灾害、公用事业通信以及对家庭和建筑环境的影响的交叉研究。此外，研究结果有可能帮助公用事业公司确定在决策和沟通工作中建立弹性的机会。项目团队将为公用事业公司提供技术指导，积极加强沟通策略，从而促进美国国家科学基金会的使命，即创造科学，帮助促进我们国家社区的健康、繁荣和福利。本研究的重点是从三个研究重点领域的半结构化访谈中获取短暂数据。首先，现有的停电数据将与采访数据和其他来源的数据相结合，以从空间上捕获和解决社区内经历停电的区域、停电持续时间和极端天气事件发生的时间。接下来，从公用事业公司收集的访谈数据将有助于了解他们在“典型”和“危机”时期的沟通方法和决策。这些数据将为公用事业公司在其沟通工作中建立弹性提供机会。最后，与社区团体和利益相关者的额外访谈将有助于了解公用事业公司的沟通是如何被接收和处理的，以及如何开发替代的基层沟通方法来应对基本服务的缺乏。从广义上讲，这项研究将创建技术指导，告知关键部门（如水、电）在极端天气事件期间与客户有效沟通的方法，并强调公平的决策机会。该研究还将通过将危机下的社会互动与公用事业和客户之间的沟通模式联系起来，为沟通理论提供信息。一个迭代过程将确定并建议在电力负荷减少之前评估以股权为导向的决策过程的战略。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Grants for Rapid Response Research (RAPID) project will investigate how local utilities develop their communication strategy plans and decision making under an extreme weather event and identify both inefficiencies in the communications and decision-making approaches to enhance communications and ensure more equitable outcomes. The extreme weather events caused by the Polar Vortex in spring 2021 impacted Texas’ energy and water infrastructures, leaving millions of Texans without access to these basic services. An issue that played a role in exacerbating the impacts incurred by communities was the inadequate communication between utilities and the community. This RAPID project seeks to understand inefficiencies in the communication approaches from utilities to their community-based customers as well as decision making when grid failures forced blackouts. The empirical knowledge derived from this work will support research at the intersection of disasters, utilities' communications, and impact on households and the built environment. Additionally, findings have the potential to help identify opportunities for utilities to build resilience in their decision making and communication efforts. The project team will create technical guidance for utilities to proactively strengthen communication strategies thereby promote NSF’s mission of generating science to help advance the health, prosperity, and welfare of our nation’s communities. This research focuses on capturing the ephemeral data from semi-structured interviews in three research thrusts areas. First, existing outage data will be coupled with interview data and data from other sources to spatially capture and resolve areas within communities that experienced power loss, their duration, and timing during the extreme weather events. Next, interview data collected from utilities will enable the understanding of their communication approaches and decision making under 'typical' and 'crisis' periods. These data will identify opportunities for utilities to build resilience in their communication efforts. Lastly, additional interviews with community groups and stakeholders will provide an understanding of how utilities' communications were received and processed, and how alternative grassroots communication approaches were developed in response to the lack of basic services. Broadly, this research will create technical guidance to inform key critical sectors (e.g., water, electricity) on effective communication approaches with customers during extreme weather events and highlight equitable decision-making opportunities. The research will also inform communications theory by linking social interactions under crises with communication patterns between utilities and customers. An iterative process will identify and suggest strategies for evaluating equity-oriented decision-making processes prior to electric load shedding.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.