National Grid Completes Installation of Rhode Island Weather Stations

Host communities using data for emergency and public works planning

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Seven Rhode Island communities are now receiving real time, local weather information thanks to a network of weather stations installed by National Grid, in collaboration with Earth Networks. The installations began in July 2014 with the activation of a station in Coventry and were wrapped up with the recent installation of a WeatherBug® station in Westerly. Other communities that received stations are Bristol (Roger Williams University), Charlestown, Exeter, Hopkinton and Little Compton. Stations are also being installed across National Grid’s Massachusetts and New York service territories.

“With the recent string of winter storms these stations are proving to be an invaluable tool for the communities in which they’re located,” said Timothy F. Horan, President of National Grid in Rhode Island. “They’re also adding to our understanding of how storms impact our electric distribution and transmission systems and how we can be better prepared.”

The real-time weather monitoring systems will help local emergency management officials and National Grid better prepare for and respond more efficiently to extreme weather incidents that can impact local communities.

“Westerly was extremely excited by the opportunity to have a National Grid weather station installed in our community,” said Amy Grzybowski, Director of Planning, Code Enforcement and Grant Administration for The Town of Westerly. “During Blizzard Juno, we utilized the data to keep an eye on wind speeds and also on dropping temperatures and we were able to relay this information to public works officials and other first responders.”

The stations measure local conditions including temperature, wind speed and direction, precipitation, humidity, heat index and more in real time. National Grid receives the information gathered by these weather stations as well as other weather forecasts and incorporates it into a predictive storm damage model that has been developed by National Grid in conjunction with MIT.

The program uses this historical storm information to plot the likely path of storms to determine potential locations for electric system damage that could cause service interruptions. The company can then position personnel and equipment in those general locations before the storms hit allowing for more rapid service restoration.

“We are also exploring ways of sharing this information with other first responders, such as the Red Cross” said Jorge Calzada, Director of Metrics, Advanced Analytics, & Customer Reliability at National Grid. “And we’re investigating additional uses for the weather data in improving energy efficiency offerings, predicting where solar rooftops and farms are likely to be located, and improving on equipment longevity.”

WeatherBug data from installed stations is available to the public online at weatherbug.com, on municipal websites and through mobile solutions (iOS and Android) apps.