Global Systems and Stakeholder Analysis

Individual Stakeholder Diagram

System Boundaries and Subsystems

Our team's goal is to create a platform that will aid government officials and utility providers in determining what energy generation methods should be incorporated into Miami-Dade County for the next 20-25 years. The scope of our projects aims solely for energy grid impacts inside Miami-Dade County. Within this system, we have a boundary where we focus on the climatological consequences such as heat index, hurricanes, floods, and storm surge zones. These also include renewable energy sources and the current methodologies for energy grid resilience in this region. Even though residents are involved in the system, they are not directly included in it as we only consider them because of their energy consumption, its effects on the energy grid, and direct disruptions in an event of extreme weather. Stakeholders such as government officials and utility providers are included in our boundary because they are the primary decision-makers of the energy grid of this region and also the ones who will be using our platform. The importance of Miami-Dade County is evident due to statistical examples such as the population of about 2.7 million, the biggest one in Florida according to Miami-Dade County Clerk of the Courts website.

Within this region, we have subsystems that include:

● Districts

● Cities

● Suburbs

The boundaries of our system consist of the geographical and socio-political constraints existing as a function of working within the Miami-Dade area.

Constraints of our System:

● As Miami-Dade County is our main system, we are considering the multiple businesses that take place here, as well as the impacts towards the subsystems that depend on this area.

● Miami-Dade County is a zone where severe weather is common. Our team opted to prioritize three different types of inclement weather: (1) hurricanes, (2) floods, and (3) heat waves. First, hurricanes are formed in the Atlantic basin, and its main fuel aspects include high humidity and warm sea level temperatures. They can make landfall at Miami-Dade County, possibly with Category 5 status. Flooding is another main concern, since the county's tropical climate makes the area prone to heavy rains. Moreover, constant floods are worrisome for the entire population, considering studies that predict the county will be experiencing excessive rising of sea level. Lastly, the rise of global temperatures due to climate change will trigger more heat waves, considering the fact that the location is extremely hot and humid, especially during the summer.

● Economic aspects of designing new infrastructure relating to the energy grid are also a critical part of our system boundaries. The return on investments is a large factor for decision makers in whether to finalize going forward with implementing new plans. Differences between multiple types of energy generation methods lead to renewable energy sources having a smaller rate of return in the short term, while non-renewable energy sources have a larger rate of return in the short term in spite of paying for the cost of fuel.

● We must also consider the risk of disruptions linked to our project, such as negative reactions from residents due to possible energy grid operations next to their homes, and massive deforestation before starting all constructions.

Stakeholder Groups

When looking at the various stakeholder groups for our senior design project, we separated our stakeholders into two overarching groups: (1) decision makers and (2) people affected by the decisions of decision makers. Below are the various stakeholders and the role that they play in our project.

Decision Makers:

● Florida Power and Light (FPL)

○ Serves as the main utility provider within Miami-Dade County

○ Responsible for providing and maintaining electrical grid infrastructure

● Miami-Dade County Office of Emergency Management

○ Supports Miami-Dade County's disaster preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation needs

○ Connects directly with residents in Miami-Dade county to alert them of climate hazard, and steps the respective communities should take

● Miami-Dade County Government

○ Overseas the Office of Emergency Management

○ Implements policy within Miami-Dade County that affects the county’s electrical energy grid usage

● US Department of Energy

○ Regulates United States energy grid policy

○ Serves as a checks and balances for Florida Power and Light

The people affected by the decision-maker groups include:

● Small and large businesses

● Workers within Miami-Dade County

● Residents of Miami-Dade County

Stakeholders using this product:

The stakeholders using our product are government officials and utility providers. For example, they will have the ability to extract data from our platform and discover solutions regarding the implementation of solar and other renewable energy sources in order to determine the optimal return on investment.

How do these systems and stakeholders motivate the necessity for the project?

The various systems and stakeholders motivate different necessities for the project. Below are the different motivations for each stakeholder and system that we have previously identified.

(1) Florida Power and Light:

● Their current decision-making frameworks don’t consider the long-term impacts of climate change.

● When making decisions, their planning focuses more on a specific disaster i.e., “prepare for a hurricane” versus preparing for multiple unexpected climate hazards, such as heat waves, flooding, and hurricanes, and their compounding and resulting impacts.

Florida Power and Light is a key stakeholder within this project because of the power they have in making decisions related to Miami-Dade County’s energy grid. With the creation of our final project, we hope to support FPL in their decision-making process.

(2) Miami-Dade Office of Emergency Management:

● Focuses on what their office can do to prepare the community for climate risks

● In charge of the county’s climate mitigation efforts.

The Miami Dade Office of Emergency Management has a direct connection to the residents of Miami-Dade. Currently, a gap exists between this office and FPL, so to bridge that gap, our platform can serve both groups by making recommendations that Miami-Dade County government policies should be implemented to better prepare for climate hazards as it relates to the electrical grid.

(3) Residents of Miami-Dade County:

● The impacts of climate change directly affect residents of the county, whose homes, businesses, and livelihoods are at risk during major climate events.

● Lower-income communities within the county are more at risk of facing the destruction of climate hazards as they may not have the funds to recover after a natural disaster occurs (as we’ve seen with hurricane Irma, for example)

Ultimately, our project seeks to help decision-makers move towards a more resilient energy grid. This can positively impact residents. who will benefit from improvements made to their surrounding communities.

Impact on Stakeholders and Society Globally

Our project has the potential to achieve multiple positive impacts for our stakeholders such as:

● Creating a more resilient energy grid;

● Improving electrical energy grid access to different neighborhoods across Miami-Dade County;

● Preparing Miami-Dade County for climate hazards;

● Increasing renewable energy technology that is better for the environment.

In the event that our project is successful in Miami-Dade County, then other areas across the county can follow a similar path towards adopting a similar decision matrix that fits into that area's specific climate hazard. There would be global impacts because Miami-Dade County is a hub for international travel and tourism, as well as the fact that many people depend on this zone for economic and business purposes. As a result, the outcomes from this project can be used as evidence for future worldwide implementations.

The potential negative impacts of our project are:

● Potential for higher-income neighborhoods to receive better care from decision-making output rather than lower-income ones because higher-income neighborhoods have the better financial resources to invest in and withstand climate hazards;

● A decrease in construction since that might be the recommendation our program provides. This directly affects workers employed in the construction sector and overall economic growth;

● Probability for increased construction. This can have a negative impact on the natural ecosystem due to the clearing of plants and wildlife.