USA: Wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes: How utilities are preparing for a summer of storms

Source(s): Industry Dive

By Robert Walton

With the Atlantic hurricane season almost a week underway and California's wildfire season quickly approaching, electric utilities are putting increasing emphasis on system hardening and restoration. The threats go beyond those two disasters, but utilities' responses carry consistent themes of enhanced customer communication, improved system visibility and grid hardening efforts.

Power companies that previously faced devastating storms are turning to stronger utility poles and advanced sensors, among other steps. Proactive customer engagement is also becoming the norm, while new grid modernization efforts mean utilities can locate and repair outages much more quickly.

[...]

Hardening, modernization efforts show results in Florida

[Scott Aaronson, Vice President of Security and Preparedness, Edison Electric Institute,] pointed to Florida as evidence new strategies and technologies are working. When Hurricane Wilma struck Florida in 2005, it took more than two weeks for Florida Power & Light to return power to 95% of customers. When Hurricane Irma hit in 2017, affecting more than 4.4 million customers, it took the utility less than a week to reach that recovery milestone.

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[Jacksonville's] utility has also developed a communications plan designed to keep customers updated with the latest information, so they can "understand exactly where we are in the restoration process," said [Melissa Dykes, President and COO, Jacksonville Energy Authority]. In previous storms, the utility sent out erroneous messages to customers that power had been restored when it had not.

[...]

[California's] lawmakers last year passed legislation requiring utilities to take steps to ensure their systems are not causing fires, possibly when power lines fall during high winds. State regulators recently approved the new wildfire mitigation plans required by the law, after requiring improvements to communication protocols surrounding proactive power shutdowns.

[...]

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Hazards Cyclone Wildfire
Country and region United States of America
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