While facilities professionals who work in the public and private sectors are tasked with ensuring their facilities are ready when disaster strikes, increasing amounts of greenhouse gas (GHGs) have resulted in more destructive and extremely hot weather, which greatly impacts residents and businesses. Specifically, these conditions can severely impact the power grid.
Municipalities should therefore examine current building and stormwater regulations, as well as backup power supplies for community centers, jails, and neighborhoods, to see if they’re prepared to handle dangerous weather.
In a recent digital event called CityAge Houston: Decarbonizing America’s Energy Capital, three leaders from Houston spoke about these challenges in a session called “Defining the Energy Resiliency Needs of Major Facilities.”
Those participating in the conversation included Trae Camble, who has been the director of environmental affairs at Port Houston for the past 5 years; Margaret Wallace Brown, who has served for the past 3 years as director of planning and development for the city of Houston; and Glenn Rhoden, who has 28 years of experience in the energy industry and is currently the energy manager for Harris County.
Importance of Action
Brown said that Houston has had seven federally declared disasters in the past 6 years, prompting the city to become more environmentally conscious. The disasters included Hurricane Harvey in 2017, which caused up to $75 billion in damages, and Winter Storm Yuri in 2021, which caused financial losses ranging between $80 billion and $130 billion.
“If we do not do our part to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and tackle the challenges of climate change head-on, events like Hurricane Harvey and Winter Storm Yuri and the challenges like those, they’re just going to simply become more frequent or severe, and more expensive. We cannot wait,” she explained.
Brown added that without action by 2050, Houston could have up to 23 days a year with temperatures over 100 degrees, which she admits the city isn’t prepared for.
Retro-Commissioning of Downtown Businesses
To reduce the effects of GHGs, Rhoden said Houston is working with businesses on ways they can reduce their energy needs to help lighten the power grid’s load, especially during hot conditions, when the demand for power rises.
He explained that Harris County is working with CenterPoint Energy and the state’s energy conservation office to do retro-commissioning of major buildings in downtown Houston.
Retro-commissioning involves reviewing a building’s operational systems and providing a preliminary energy assessment to see how upgrades could achieve energy reduction.
Backup Power at Community Centers and Jails
Rhoden explained it’s important that city and county facilities that serve vulnerable populations, like community centers and jails, be adequately prepared for power outages because of extreme weather.
He said community centers and jails in Harris County have “rooftop units, large district chilling plants with thousands of tons of chillers in them.”
Houston Public Media reports the county is in the process of installing solar panels and backup battery systems at 16 county community centers and libraries to serve residents who lose their power. These will serve as both warming and cooling centers for the public.
One of the city’s biggest challenges, Rhoden noted, is finding and retaining a trained workforce that’s knowledgeable about this type of technology.
New Building and Drainage Regulations
To try to prevent the catastrophic aftermath of a future storm resembling Hurricane Harvey, which left the city and surrounding county underwater for many days, Brown said the city adopted new buildings and drainage regulations.
To reduce flood damage, KTRK-TV reports that homes and businesses located within the 100-year floodplain must be built 2 feet above the 500-year floodplain. In other words, they must be lifted to reduce the chances of flooding from 1% to .2%. New detention requirement changes also went into effect in 2021 and apply to commercial and residential properties.
Brown said these regulations “adapt to climate change by raising buildings, increasing detention, promoting green infrastructure, groomed stormwater infrastructure, weatherization, and distributed energy resources.” She explained that additional strategies are needed to minimize the county’s carbon footprint while saving money and improving the quality of life.
Clean Hydrogen Hub
Brown explained that Houston developed Resilient Houston, which is based on the resilient cities model, and the Climate Action Plan. As a result, the city created an energy master plan in November 2022 called “Resilient Now” using a partnership with CenterPoint Energy and other agencies. In fact, the city created a clean hydrogen hub thanks to the help of 70 companies and institutions.
Camble complimented these efforts, saying, “I’ve seen more collaboration over these last five or six years than I’ve seen throughout my environmental career.”
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) says these hubs create “networks of hydrogen producers, consumers, and local connective infrastructure to accelerate the use of hydrogen as a clean energy carrier that can deliver or store tremendous amounts of energy.” These would help meet President Joe Biden’s goals of a 100% clean electrical grid by 2035 and net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Brown said she believes the clean energy hubs will create about 34,000 jobs, strengthening Houston’s economy.
Learn More
Houston is showing its desire to reduce GHGs after being the victim of dangerous weather because of climate change. Those efforts include the retro-commissioning of commercial buildings, backup power for community centers and jails, new building and drainage regulations, and a clean hydrogen hub. All of these solutions are examples of collaboration between public and private entities, which is key to success.
During the session, speakers also discussed a neighborhood solar project, heat mapping to identify urban hot spots in the community, and Port Houston sustainability grants.
The full CityAge presentation is available here, and read more about how facilities benefit from DOE grants here.