Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Increases in the frequency, intensity, and duration of extreme weather events will translate into the potential for widespread, long duration power interruptions with substantial social and economic impacts. This paper fills a gap by using specifically designed surveys to understand the strategic response of residential customers to 1-, 3-, and 14-day interruptions. We find that relocation is 5-10 times more expensive than staying home, but that up to 85% of customers relocate with a 14-day interruption. The economic consequences of these decisions are highly unequal – with lower income customers spending substantial portions of their monthly income to mitigate interruption impacts – and are equivalent to $5 to $25 billion in our case study in the state of Illinois in the United States. We discuss the drivers for the relocation decision, including the fact that customers that own backup generation are significantly less likely to relocate and estimate the impacts on transportation infrastructure due to this relocation. These results can be used by utilities, regulators, planners, and other decision makers to understand the multifaceted nature of mitigation options for resilience enhancements within and outside the power system.