Pain points in covering overhead T&D lines:
Limited capacity in the traditional indemnity market
Widespread power interruptions following Nat Cat & severe weather events, impacting economic acitivity and supply chains
Clients forced to pay significant additional project costs due to Nat-Cat damage/delays on network lines
Premium rate hikes when market conditions harden
Key benefits
Fresh capacity:
Parametric products offer an alternative to un-insured risks
Customised protection:
Flexible and straight-forward structure tailored to clients needs
Transparency:
Certainty of indemnification with pre-agreed thresholds & payout amounts
Timely claims payment:
On-site monitoring, weather stations, & location data permit for real-time claims assessment & quick payout following a triggering event.
Due to the frequency of overhead wire damage of T&D lines, corporates are left scrambling for cover as Nat Cat continues to evolve
Climate change continues to drive new extreme weather records, where 2023 saw an estimated $380 billion in economic losses. Significant events ranged from severe convective storms in the United States to floods in Afghanistan, Australia, India, Thailand and Pakistan, drought in China, earthquakes to typhoons Megi and Nalgae in the Philippines. As some of the largest distribution networks in the world happen to fall into these Nat Cat-prone areas, many corporates and businesses suffer from extreme losses due to overhead wire damage of (T&D) lines. Consequently, following year-over-year losses, many traditional carriers are retreating from the market, leaving exposed corporates unprotected.
Parametric insurance solutions: protecting T&D networks
The Philippines is highly prone to natural catastrophes, including tropical cyclones (typhoons) and earthquakes. More typhoons are entering the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) than anywhere else in the world, averaging 20 per year, with 8 or 9 crossing into the Philippines. An intense typhoon has the potential to cause not only damage to exposed assets but also severe business interruption losses, which are often vastly underinsured. Therefore, securing rapid financial liquidity is a priority in order to repair the damaged distribution network and return to normal operations.
This is where parametric insurance risk transfer solutions step in and offer access to new sources of capacity in the Philippines, and globally. Descartes’ bespoke and customizable covers provide an alternative solution to all industries dependent on T&D lines and deliver transparent terms and swift liquidity when corporates need them most.
case study example
Case study
Overhead T&D networks have extensive exposure to cyclone risk, which is what a client experienced when Tropical Cyclone Megi hit their large telecom company on April 12, 2022.
Problem
Having suffered recent losses, they faced premium rate hikes. Meanwhile, their dispersed distribution also added challenge to the traditional loss adjustment process, resulting in payment delays & shortfalls.
Solution
If covered at the time, our parametric cover could map the grid & network of T&D lines, providing a granular assessment of their cyclone exposure, with payout structured according to wind speed.
Result
In the case of a policy-triggering windstorm event, remote, near real-time monitoring of storm track and intensity data would have allowed for payment within a few days - with no need to undergo the hassle of loss-adjustment on wide-spread assets.
