Scientists at Berkeley Lab and Resource Innovations have initiated a public-private partnership to update and make improvements to the Interruption Cost Estimate (ICE) Calculator. The ICE Calculator, a publicly available, online tool helps utilities, government officials, and other entities estimate the economic impacts of power interruptions.

For many years officials have utilized the ICE Calculator to help understand the financial costs customers experience when their electricity goes out and to help plan and prioritize resilience improvements to the U.S. power grid. The tool estimates power interruptions based on data of more than 100,000 customer responses from 34 utility-sponsored surveys conducted in the U.S. between 1989 and 2012. Scientists realized, however, that some of the data is over twenty years old and is not as accurate when estimating widespread and long-term power interruptions, thus prompting the desire to upgrade the tool. Consequently, researchers are working to create a consistent set of short duration, customer interruption cost (CIC) survey questions, including questions to understand customer behavior during widespread, longer duration interruptions; coordinate the running of CIC surveys to ensure results will be statistically representative for all regions of the U.S.; and then update the ICE Calculator based on the results. “We know that the ICE Calculator is relied upon across the country to inform major decisions on investments to improve grid reliability and resilience, said Peter Larsen, the lead researcher at Berkeley Lab. “Accordingly, we want to ensure that it is based on the most up-to-date and comprehensive information available.” Read more at Berkeley Lab.