Blackout Technology

Both HSB and AER have a long history in risk analysis and our alliance brings together our specialized experience and expertise in the blackout assessment field. The technology will be built upon the 147-year track record of HSB’s technical knowledge and leadership in equipment insurance and loss prevention and AER’s expertise in climate and environment risk management solutions.

HSB, part of Munich Re, is the leading engineering and technical risk insurer in North America and the largest insurer of electrical equipment. AER, part of Verisk Analytics, is a leading provider of climate and environment risk management solutions.

HSB and AER are formalizing the technology that we’ve been incubating for eight years. Our joint teams will now make it possible for stakeholders to plan for widespread blackouts caused by all perils and minimize and manage their impact across all lines of businesses. The strategic alliance between AER and HSB enables a significant advance in the blackout assessment field and will be a great benefit to the thousands of organizations and tens of millions of people affected every year by blackouts.

Through the alliance, HSB and AER are developing a new technology solution that will enable insurers to:

• Predict the severity of business impacts from future power outage events and determine their risk accumulations and loss estimations of insured coverages within reasonable confidence levels
  
• Calculate loss and loss adjustment costs required to charge an appropriate premium for current coverages or future coverages under consideration
• Assess wide variations in blackout risks by geographic region and grid area

The technology will empower risk managers in insurance and reinsurance, corporations and government agencies to take a strategic perspective on blackout risk, assess and optimize their risk exposure from potential events, and calculate potential losses when an event is imminent.

Insurers and reinsurers will benefit by being able to calculate, for all insured lines, the likelihood of loss to their business portfolio, the impact on their facilities and assess the probability of loss due to power outages.