EDC and IBM team up to protect businesses and its people from natural disasters

by Elton Gagni / December 9, 2021

The Philippines is no stranger when it comes to different calamities, given its geographic location. Back in July, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) reported that the economic cost of natural disasters hitting the country every year amounted to over Php 170 Billion.

The ADB also reported that 0.7% to 1% of the gross domestic product is cut due to these occurrences, detailing Php 133 Billion comes from typhoons while Php 43.5 Billion from earthquakes.

Recently, the Energy Development Corporation (EDC) announced its partnership with IBM’s The Weather Company (TWC) to help improve decision making for its power plant operations, especially in areas prone to natural hazards.

The 15-day hourly forecasts on demand from TWC allows EDC to foresee different calamities including floods and landslides and take preventive measures to help ensure employees’ safety and protect critical assets. This data also allows EDC to deep dive on how it can effectively supply energy to power Philippine businesses regardless of weather conditions.

“Unbridled consumption and primacy of bottom-line growth are at the root of the climate crisis, and we today need a stable supply of power that also keeps our Mother Earth healthy and happy,” said EDC Chairman and CEO Federico R. Lopez. “By leveraging weather and hyper-local insights to improve the efficiency of our decisions and operations, EDC is proving how purposeful innovation and partnership can lead to sustainable management of our renewable geothermal resource.”

IBM Philippines President and Country General Manager Aileen Judan-Jiao shared that the increase in intensity of weather extremes can be disruptive to businesses. “Today, EDC is not only supplying naturally sourced renewable energy to our country’s national grid, but it is also demonstrating how technology can improve business operations in a more sustainable way,” Judan-Jiao explained.

IBM also shared that TWC is part of its Environmental Intelligence Suite (EIS), which uses AI and geospatial analytics, weather data, and other innovations for climate risk analytics and carbon accounting. Powered and delivered by Filipino talents, EIS helps companies predict potential business impact of weather and climate change, access climate risk analytics, report on environmental initiatives and operationalize carbon accounting.

Technology does open up a lot of opportunities for progress. Should Philippine businesses choose to invest in this technology, not only will they be able to prepare better for natural disasters, but also contribute to safeguarding the growth of the national economy.

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