The Measurement of Disaster Recovery Efficiency Using Data Envelopment Analysis: An Application to Electric Power Restoration

Many firms are involved in rebuilding a region’s critical infrastructure after a disaster. One question that follows is how efficient were firms in delivering restoration services? The evaluation approach proposed in this paper builds off Reilly et al. (Reliability Engineering & System Safety 152: 197–204, 2016) by considering disaster severity to assess efficiency. We expand on the approach by adjusting limitations on the upper bound of efficiency. This paper similarly provides an application to recent post-hurricane restoration activities across different electric power companies in the states and territories of the United States.