Restoring Power and Utilities In Emergency Responses

Restoring-Power-and-Utilities-In-Emergency-Responses_mixdown

Every year, seasonal storms like tornadoes destroy parts of the United States. While paramedics and first responders attend to the wounded, utility companies restore power and utilities in an emergency response.

Utility companies must restore power quickly after a storm. Loss of power affects the water supply and sanitation services for the affected area’s residents, and hospitals require electricity to treat the injured.

Understanding the great lengths utility companies take to restore power after a disaster is a key to a successful restoration effort. Keep reading to find out how it all works.

Pre-Disaster Planning

The first step in responding to a disaster is preparing a plan in advance. Planning for severe storms and natural disasters is a big part of public safety.

Utility companies plan ahead so utility vehicles are stocked and crews don’t devolve into chaos in the event of an emergency. Without a plan, utility crews would not know where to begin the process of restoring electricity.

Regarding pre-disaster planning, utility companies start by identifying the highest priority areas.

The first priority is always restoring power to lifesaving services, such as hospitals, emergency centers, and fire stations. Failing to restore utilities to these services would compound the effects of the disaster.

Implementing the Pre-Disaster Plan

As soon as the possibility of a storm is confirmed, utility companies begin to implement their pre-disaster plan. They continue to monitor the storm closely to determine where and when it is likely to hit hardest.

This way, the utility crews can try to stay a step ahead of the storm rather than scrambling to catch up with it.

They use this information to determine the best location to set up a staging area and begin shipping in any necessary materials.

As the storm grows, the companies pay attention to its severity level. This enables them to estimate how much mutual aid assistance they will need.

Of course, every storm is different. Still, having a pre-disaster plan enables utility companies to restore power as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Mutual-Aid Approach

Another important thing to know about how utility companies respond to disasters is that they use a mutual-aid approach.

Before a disaster occurs, it is important that utility companies know how to access the network of restoration workers. This is done through the mutual assistance program.

Under this program, utility companies across the country ally. In a major power outage or disaster, cooperative utility companies send crews, trucks, equipment, and supplies to aid disaster relief.

Crews come from all over the United States in the thousands and tens of thousands to help cities recover from natural disasters. This is also true of law enforcement, fire departments, medical teams, and first responders.

Steps to Restoring Power and Utilities After a Tornado

Now that you understand how pre-planning for emergencies improves the response and restoration efforts of utility companies, let’s talk about how they restore power. In most cases, there are five steps.

Step 1

A utility company’s first priority is restoring power to transmission towers and lines, which supply power to transmission substations.

Transmission tower lines fail very rarely, but when they do, the impact is enormous. A single tower can serve tens of thousands of people. If transmission towers are damaged, utility companies repair them first.

Step 2

The next thing utility companies check are the local distribution substations. Each of these substations serves thousands of customers.

Although the problem could be a failure in the transmission system, correcting the problem at the substation level can restore power to a large area of people very quickly.

Step 3

Following the substations, utility companies check the main distribution supply lines. This is key if the crews cannot isolate the problem at the substation.

Supply lines transmit power from the substation to consumers’ homes, usually a neighborhood or town.

When power is restored to a supply line, all customers on that line get their electricity back immediately. The only problem is if there is another problem further down the supply line.

Step 4

The last supply lines are called tap lines. They carry power to underground transformers and utility poles outside homes and businesses.

The line crews are responsible for restoring the remaining power outages. They prioritize the tap lines that service the largest number of customers.

Step 5

Lastly, damage can sometimes occur on the service line between your home and the transformer on the nearest utility pole. If you don’t have power but you can see the lights on in your neighbor’s house, this is likely the culprit.

You will need to notify your utility company of this outage so they can come and repair it, as they may be busy repairing more major damages.

Post-Disaster Assessment

In the aftermath of a disaster, utility companies review the storm’s impact. They try to identify patterns and trends in the storm’s behavior. Then, they use these lessons to better prepare for the next storm.