Here’s a press release from Progress Energy dated September 2009 addressing how it handles storm response. It’s titled, “Twenty years later, Progress Energy is still learning from Hurricane Hugo.” I’d like to see the company’s storm response plan for Western North Carolina.
From the press release:
Progress Energy has developed a comprehensive storm response plan that drives restoration efforts with clear procedures, proven techniques and advanced resource planning tools to maximize the effectiveness of restoration efforts. Resources once coordinated from regional offices are now managed from a centralized storm center that can quickly mobilize crews and equipment in advance of the storm.
Progress Energy also maintains structured, ongoing communications with utilities across the region to secure additional resources, when needed. Collaboration among electric utilities has helped to increase access to crews and equipment and shorten outage durations. Progress Energy customers have seen the benefits of these resource agreements after major hurricanes in the Carolinas and Florida — Bertha, Fran, Floyd, Charley, Frances — as well as ice storms. Likewise, Progress Energy crews have assisted other utilities after major storms, including Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 and Hurricane Ike last year.
Other improvements in storm response made since Hurricane Hugo include:
Staging and logistics — Advanced staging and logistics strategically support crews in the field with vehicles, technology, food, housing and communications. By handling basic logistical needs in advance, tree and line crews are able to work safer, faster and more efficiently when major storms affect Progress Energy service areas. Having detailed plans in place has reduced restoration times significantly.
Field communications — Major improvements include centralized direction of crews in the field, as well as satellite communication and real-time outage information. This enables the company to provide better information to customers on damage assessment and restoration progress.
Resource management — Computer-based resource modeling provides a detailed picture of anticipated electric system damage based on forecast conditions. This enables Progress Energy to deploy crews to expected hard-hit areas before the storm. Additional resources can also be quickly mobilized, as needed, from among Progress Energy’s 11,000 employees and contract crews.
Customer communications — An automated outage reporting system, capable of handling 120,000 calls per hour, processes customer outage calls. The tool can notify customers when power has been restored to their home or business. An online outage map is also available to provide outage numbers and locations for the entire service area. During Hugo, no centralized outage reporting tool existed and information was compiled manually over the phone from dozens of district offices across the Carolinas.
Here are more details from another Progress Energy press release in advance of the 2008 hurricane season:
Progress Energy customers who lose power should call the 24-hour automated outage line at 800-419-6356. This service provides the same information available from customer service associates and is the fastest way to report a power outage. This technology also offers an option to allow customers to receive a call when new information becomes available regarding power restoration.
This state-of-the-art automated system is capable of taking more than 125,000 calls per hour during widespread outages. Law enforcement and emergency agencies ask that customers not call local 911 emergency services to report power outages, unless the outage involves a downed power line that could cause injuries.
Those customers with Internet access may also view Progress Energy’s online outage map. This advanced tool displays round-the-clock updates on outages and repairs throughout the utility’s service territory. To view the outage map, visitwww.progress-energy.com/outagemap.
The Carolinas region is no stranger to major storms, and Progress Energy is no stranger to industry honors for storm response, having earned the Emergency Response Award from the Edison Electric Institute a record five times in the program’s ten-year history. And for its role in aiding companies and citizens in the Gulf Coast region after the devastating 2005 hurricanes, Progress Energy won the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) Emergency Assistance Award.
The company uses each storm restoration as an opportunity to make improvements in storm restoration, from pre-storm communication and preparation to damage assessments and repairs.
My question to Progress Energy: in the wake of this most recent storm, what changes or improvements does the company plan to make to its storm response plans? Put another way: what weaknesses were identified, and how will they be addressed?
Previous question posed here: Did Progress Energy fail its customers in snow storm response?
2 Comments
Hi Ash,
This is Scott from Progress Energy. Thanks for helping us keep people informed about the restoration process. We understand the difficulty of not having power and the gravity of going without it in these temperatures. That’s why we prepared for the storm and are working hard to restore power as quickly and safely as possible. Our crews are working around the clock in treacherous terrain to repair severe damage to our system. In many areas, we have to rebuild the grid and perform work that would normally take weeks in better circumstances. We have made more than 144,000 customer restorations and our goal is to have 98 percent of everyone back on by tonight.
We view every experience as an opportunity to improve. Once the operational challenge is over, we’ll take a look back and identify what we can do better next time. We’ll make adjustments to our plans and pass the feedback to other utilities as well. We appreciate the many positive, supporting comments on this blog and the understanding and patience of our customers.
You might also be interested in some recent pics I uploaded to Flickr that illustrate the challenging terrain and conditions that face our crews as they try to make repairs. These were taken from by our helicopter crew: http://www.flickr.com/photos/progressenergy/sets/72157622925669957/
Also, a note about the above comment. Our phone lines were never down. In fact, we fielded more than 180,000 outage reports from customers this weekend. Perhaps he is referring to French Broad EMC, which did lose its phone system.
Be safe and stay warm.
I think it is/was a hoot that their "phones were down" during the past few days …. just lucky I guess.
Some folks I work with have been told TODAY "it may be 3 more days," and they have been without since Friday evening …..