Editor ’ s Letter
Current Issue
My Editor ’ s Interview with PJM President & CEO Manu Asthana exemplifies steps taken in the Energy Sector to avert critical worker shortages in the pandemic . PJM is the biggest power grid in North America , and the largest energy market in the world . The strategies implemented by Mr . Asthana and his team could be viewed as a pandemic response model for both privately held and publicly run critical infrastructures . By ensuring worker safety in control rooms , other facilities , and in the field across a 13-state region , continuous electricity was provided to 65 million people and the infrastructures serving them .
The massive Food and Agriculture Sector was heavily impacted by COVID-19 and continues to adjust to its realities . In “ Supply Chain Resilience : Push and Pull in Catastrophes ,” Phillip Palin examines how supply chains responded to COVID-19 , and the pandemic ’ s impact thus far on grocery and food supply . Following the article ’ s first installment in the Spring / Summer edition 4 , Mr . Palin continues to frame his analysis in Washington State ’ s 4.2 million population Puget Sound Region . Based on the COVID-19 experience , he postulates that demand drives and organizes supply , product movement may matter most , and that at any point in time , capacity is essentially fixed . Mr . Palin applies the findings to a future earthquake event in the same region . Washington State is where the first U . S . case of COVID-19 appeared , and the region is also designated as an earthquake “ hot zone .”
Sherrell Greene , in “ How Nuclear Power Can Transform Electric Grid and Critical Infrastructure Resilience ,” explores Small Modular Reactors ( SMR ) and how this new nuclear technology could facilitate electric grid resilience . The concept of a resilient nuclear power plant is introduced and the requirements for achieving that capacity assessed . He includes a preliminary , exploratory review of how current SMR designs may assist grid resilience based on criteria suggested by the author . Mr . Greene posits that strategic use of resilient nuclear power plants coupled with resilient critical infrastructure islands could transform electric grid , critical infrastructure , and strategic asset supply chain resilience . He then examines key technical , economic , regulatory , and policy barriers to adopting this new technology for grid resilience , and initial steps that should be taken to deploy SMRs on a widespread basis .
Focusing on the Energy Sector , Alexander Gilbert and Norman Bazilian analyze the direct and indirect pandemic effects on the operations and resilience of global energy markets and on energy sector resilience . In “ COVID-19 Pandemic : Energy Market Disruption and Resilience ,” they note that the pandemic ’ s effects on the sector are occurring during a period of rapid structural change . The pandemic may be a critical juncture for a clean energy transition , as both government di-
4 Palin , Phillip . 2020 . “ Food and Other Supply Flows in Case of Catastrophe .” Journal of Critical Infrastructure Policy 1 ( 1 ), 51-67 .
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