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FMEA Executive Director Amy Zubaly Details Key Role of Mutual Aid in Response to Hurricane Ian

October 8, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
October 8, 2022

In a recent Q&A with Public Power Current, Amy Zubaly, Executive Director of the Florida Municipal Electric Association (FMEA), details how mutual aid planning laid a solid foundation for the speedy restoration of power in the state in the wake of Hurricane Ian, which hit Florida in late September.

As of 9 p.m. Tuesday, October 4, nearly 100 percent of the more than 1.5 million Florida public power customers across the state are receiving electricity. A small number of customers are unable to accept electricity due to excessive damage, damages to their homes, or significant flooding. Utilities will continue to work diligently to restore power to these remaining customers, FMEA said.

“Mutual aid planning for Hurricane Ian began on Friday, September 23, when there was a high probability of the storm hitting Florida as a strong hurricane later the following week,” Zubaly noted.

“At that point the storm track was shifting between a landfall in the Tampa area or in North Florida along the Big Bend region. Already knowing that requests for mutual aid from Florida public power utilities would soon start coming in, FMEA reached out to other state and regional public power mutual aid coordinators asking them to begin gathering over the weekend the numbers of crews they could provide for mutual aid assistance,” she said in response to questions from Public Power Current.

In addition, FMEA asked the American Public Power Association (APPA) to hold a mutual aid call on the following Monday, September 26 with the other state and regional public power mutual aid coordinators, Zubaly said.

By Monday morning, September 26, FMEA had already begun assigning available mutual aid resources to those Florida public power utilities that requested crews for prestaging or for post-storm arrival.

“Florida was still anticipating landfall somewhere along the Tampa Bay area or north. By the end of the day Monday, already hundreds of public power mutual aid resources were being requested and assigned to requesting utilities – some for prestaging and some for arrival post-storm, which at that point was most likely for a Friday or Saturday arrival,” Zubaly said.

However, by Tuesday afternoon, the track of Ian had shifted a little further east. This resulted in an anticipated landfall somewhere further south along the southwest coast of Florida, with landfall much earlier than originally anticipated, and changing projected impacts to Florida public power.

Many crews that were scheduled to depart and/or arrive later in the week were asked to change to an earlier arrival date, and to prestage outside of Florida to wait until the storm passed through and conditions were safe to travel, Zubaly said.

Hurricane Ian ultimately made landfall on the afternoon of Wednesday, September 28 in southwest Florida as a strong a powerful Category 4 hurricane. “The changing track also resulted in changing mutual aid needs. Once the storm passed through Florida and FMEA members were able to make damage assessments, mutual aid crews were immediately shifted around based on needs in areas of impact,” Zubaly noted.

Ian left more than 2.6 million customers in Florida in the dark, with more than 212,000 of them from 23 of Florida’s 33 public power utilities. Ultimately more than 750 lineworkers from 150 public power utilities in 22 states were committed to Florida public power utilities.

“Within 24 hours post landfall, while Ian was still unleashing its wrath in some areas of the state, public power had restored more than 57% of those customers initially experiencing outages; in 48 hours post landfall, nearly 80% of our customers were restored; and in 72 hours post landfall, more than 90% of those customers that had experienced outages were restored,” she said.

Supply Chain

Zubaly also addressed the question of whether supply chain challenges have been a factor in terms of completing power restoration in the state.

“Supply chain needs continue to be a challenge, but we had what we needed after Hurricane Ian to turn the lights back on for our customers,” she said.

Florida utilities “prepare year-round for hurricanes – the season begins June 1 and lasts until November 30. Part of that preparation involves maintaining a storm stock of electric grid supplies and materials that are typically used during hurricane restoration. Utilities still maintain their normal operating stock, but in addition, also increase supplies for their separate storm reserve.”

While electric grid supply chain constraints “have made it challenging to increase our storm reserve supplies to typical levels and maintaining our normal operating supplies, we were prepared as a whole to be able to restore power if hit with one large-scale hurricane. However, supply chain challenges still exist. If Florida, or even another area in the southeast, gets hit with another major hurricane this season, obtaining needed supplies will be even more challenging.”

In addition, destruction in certain areas of the state “was so expansive — and the need to restore expeditiously so acute — that the most impacted utilities were supplied stock from other in-state utilities, further depleting in-state stocks among all Florida electric utilities,” Zubaly noted.

“And while we were able to restore power to our customers with supplies we had on hand, supplies for our normal operations, including new development, are dwindling rapidly. Suppliers and manufacturers prioritized transformers and other supplies needed for immediate hurricane restoration, but that has put additional delays on manufacturing of normal operating supplies,” she said.

Outages Post-Hurricane Ian Down to Less Than 500,000 in Florida

October 5, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
October 5, 2022

 

There were approximately 394,000 customer outages in Florida as a result of Hurricane Ian as of the afternoon of October 4, down from a peak of 2.7 million customers without power, the Department of Energy reported.

Ian made its initial landfall near Port Charlotte, Fla., as a category 4 hurricane on September 28.

Outages in Florida were down 85% from the peak on September 29, DOE said.

Restoration efforts continue across Florida. Electric industry representatives report that at the peak, more than 44,000 workers from 33 states and the District of Columbia were supporting power restorations.

Overall, Florida utilities report that Ian mainly impacted the distribution system, with no significant damage reported to transmission assets.

DOE said portions of the electric distribution system will need to be rebuilt in some of the hardest hit areas of Florida.

Meanwhile, in South Carolina, Santee Cooper on Oct. 3 reported that it restored 70,000 customers within 54 hours after Hurricane Ian directly hit its service territory, making landfall at Winyah Bay in Georgetown County Friday. All customers who lost power because of Hurricane Ian were restored by 8:02 p.m. Sunday. 

Santee Cooper is the state-owned public power utility in South Carolina.

Crews worked around the clock to restore all residential and commercial customers, with the help of 34 contract line crews and 12 tree crews from across the southeast. Amongst the restoration, these crews replaced 20 power poles and 32 transformers. 

Hurricane Ian also knocked 12 transmission lines out of service, affecting power delivery to six electric cooperatives and other Santee Cooper retail customers.

The cooperatives impacted were Berkeley Electric Cooperative, Santee Electric Cooperative, Marlboro Electric Cooperative, and Lynches River Electric Cooperative, Horry Electric Cooperative and Mid-Carolina Electric Cooperative.

Santee Cooper had 10 external transmission line and tree crews, plus four helicopters and crews, helping its internal team.

All transmission delivery points were reenergized by Friday night, just hours after Ian left the Santee Cooper footprint.

Power Restored to One Million Customers in Puerto Rico

September 28, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
September 28, 2022

LUMA Energy on Sept. 27 announced that it has restored electric service to 1 million of its 1.5 million customers in Puerto Rico who lost power as a result of Hurricane Fiona.

As part of the prioritization of restoration to critical customers, LUMA also shared it has restored power to 131 hospitals and 946 Puerto Rico Aqueducts and Sewers Authority facilities.

As part of its overall and regional restoration efforts, LUMA is continuing to shift its field utility workers to areas in the south and west of Puerto Rico that were hit hardest by the hurricane, with impacts that included severe flooding, and up to 103 mph winds.  

LUMA is continuing to project service will be restored to more than 64-77% of customers by September 28, 2022, while 77-91% of customers are anticipated to be restored by Friday, September 30.

Restoration on a given day can fluctuate and continue to depend on a number of factors, including ongoing damage assessments and real-time repairs, adequate generation including energy reserves to protect and balance the system and access to critical facilities most impacted by the hurricane.

Hurricane Fiona impacted many parts of the electric grid and generation facilities across Puerto Rico, especially in the Ponce and Mayagüez regions that suffered severe damage to roads and critical infrastructure.

Grid and generation infrastructure in these regions were also significantly affected by the severe weather brought by Hurricane Fiona which included 12-30+ inches of heavy rain, winds between 85 and 103 mph and widespread flooding.

LUMA is prioritizing repairs for essential critical services, like hospitals, and is increasing the number of crews in the regions hit hardest. Out of the over 2,000 utility workers mobilized across the island, 460 are now working in the Mayagüez region and 244 in the Ponce region for a total of approximately 35% of mobilized workers addressing areas with the most severe damage. 

In June 2020, Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority and the Puerto Rico Public-Private Partnership Authority selected LUMA Energy to operate, maintain and modernize the electricity transmission and distribution system of PREPA for fifteen years through a public-private partnership.

Puerto Rico Sees Power Restoration Progress Over the Weekend

September 25, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
September 25, 2022

LUMA Energy reported that as part of ongoing Puerto Rico Hurricane Fiona recovery efforts, approximately 50 percent, or 732,324 of customers had their power restored as of Saturday, Sept. 24.

LUMA said that it has continued conducting damage assessments and critical repairs, and has been focusing on connecting critical customers, such as hospitals and other essential services.

As part of combined restoration efforts, LUMA continues to coordinate with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA). and other private generation operators to reenergize critical generation facilities and increase the amount of available generation so LUMA can restore service to more customers.

Along with approximately 50% of customers restored as of Sept. 24, LUMA reported:

In June 2020, PREPA and the Puerto Rico Public-Private Partnership Authority selected LUMA Energy to operate, maintain and modernize the electricity transmission and distribution system of PREPA for fifteen years through a public-private partnership.

Puerto Rico Power Restoration Efforts Advance

September 21, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
September 21, 2022

Nearly 300,000 customers in Puerto Rico have had their power restored in the wake of Hurricane Fiona as of the afternoon of Sept. 20, with continuing efforts to reenergize the grid and restore power as quickly and safely as possible, LUMA Energy reported.

Damage assessment, restoration and reenergization efforts by LUMA and its partners continued across Puerto Rico following the severe impacts of Hurricane Fiona.

LUMA said it has fully deployed a field response crew of over 2,000 utility field workers who are working in difficult conditions to repair the grid and restore power across Puerto Rico as quickly and safely as possible, including additional utility field workers provided by Quanta.

All emergency response efforts are being coordinated through the LUMA Emergency Operations Center (LEOC) and includes close consultation with the Government of Puerto Rico, Municipalities, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Puerto Rico Emergency Management Bureau (PREMB), Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), the U.S. Department of Energy Support Function #12 and other government agencies to coordinate a unified response.

Among the LUMA crews mobilized and responding to the impact of Hurricane Fiona include:

The Department of Energy (DOE) reported that as of 1:00 PM EDT Sept. 20, Puerto Rico had approximately 1.18 million outages (80% of customers).

On the afternoon of September 18, Puerto Rico experienced an island-wide power outage due to impacts to distribution and transmission damage from Hurricane Fiona, which caused a system imbalance that tripped generation units offline.

Following the island-wide outage, PREPA, in coordination with the transmission and distribution operator LUMA, began procedures to restart generation and restore customers.

New Mutual Aid Committee Established At APPA National Conference

July 15, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
July 15, 2022

A new Mutual Aid Committee (MAC) was established last month at the American Public Power Association’s National Conference in Nashville, Tenn.

Previously, national-level public power mutual aid efforts had been conducted under the auspices of the Mutual Aid Working Group (MAWG), which coordinated and facilitated the mutual aid program for APPA for well over a decade.    

“The MAWG had effectively coordinated and facilitated the mutual aid program for APPA for well over a decade,” noted Santee Cooper’s Neil James, who will serve as Chair of the MAC. “The creation of MAC simply reflects an effort to take things to the next level.” 

The creation of the MAC formalizes APPA member oversight of the mutual aid program. The MAC remains focused on networking, supporting emergency response, facilitating mutual aid, and sharing ideas and resources.  

 Acting Co-Chairs of the MAWG, Amy Zubaly (FMEA) and Kenny Roberts (ElectriCities of North Carolina), oversaw establishment of the MAC and the elections for the MAC Executive Council. Neil James was elected as the Chair.  Mike Willets (MMUA) was elected as Vice Chair.   

JT Flick (NYPA), Brandon Wylie (Electric Cities of GA), and David Hefner (GRDA) were elected as At-Large members. 

“I want to personally thank Amy, Kenny, the MAWG/MAC members, and the MAC Executive Council for their service,” said James.

For more information on the MAC and mutual aid processes or becoming an active member of the MAC, contact mutualaid@publicpower.org.

NOAA Forecasters Predict Above-Average Hurricane Activity This Year

May 25, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
May 25, 2022

Forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center are predicting above-average hurricane activity this year, which would make it the seventh consecutive above-average hurricane season.

NOAA’s outlook for the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season, which extends from June 1 to November 30, predicts a 65% chance of an above-normal season, a 25% chance of a near-normal season and a 10% chance of a below-normal season.

For the 2022 hurricane season, NOAA is forecasting a likely range of 14 to 21 named storms (winds of 39 mph or higher), of which 6 to 10 could become hurricanes (winds of 74 mph or higher), including 3 to 6 major hurricanes (category 3, 4 or 5; with winds of 111 mph or higher). NOAA provides these ranges with a 70% confidence.

The increased activity anticipated this hurricane season is attributed to several climate factors, including the ongoing La Niña that is likely to persist throughout the hurricane season, warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea, weaker tropical Atlantic trade winds and an enhanced west African monsoon.

An enhanced west African monsoon supports stronger African Easterly Waves, which seed many of the strongest and longest-lived hurricanes during most seasons, NOAA said.

Public Power Utilities Make Progress In Connecting Navajo Nation Families To Grid

May 14, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
May 14, 2022

Public power utility crews are making significant progress in their efforts to extend electricity to Navajo homes through Light Up Navajo III (LUN III), a joint effort between the American Public Power Association (APPA) and the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA).

The LUN III initiative began on April 3, 2022 and will last for 11 weeks.

NTUA will be welcoming workers from public power utilities and organizations from 11 states, including Arkansas, Arizona, Delaware, California, Connecticut, North Carolina, New Mexico, Ohio, Washington, Texas, and Utah.

One of the public power utilities participating in LUN III is Arizona public power utility Salt River Project (SRP).

SRP on May 11 reported that its linemen have successfully connected more than 50 Navajo families to electric service despite rough terrain, high winds, snow and mud in unfamiliar land. In all, 56 families on Arizona’s Navajo Nation now have electricity powering their homes for the very first time, SRP reported.

The SRP linemen took four weeks of up to 16-hour workdays during their phase of the project.

“The first home we connected was the most touching for me. It was a mom who was living in a trailer with her children, and they had no power or running water. They had gotten sick with COVID-19 and had to quarantine at home. They were excited (to get power) and telling us how tough it had been the last few months,” said Art Peralta, SRP construction crew foreman, who resides in Mesa. “It’s very rewarding. I’ve never done anything like this, and it means a lot. It’s life changing and brings more meaning to our job.”

The SRP line crews returned home on May 8 after working on the Navajo Nation in northeastern Arizona since April 2.

During SRP’s participation in the month-long humanitarian effort, line crews constructed about 12 miles of distribution lines. SRP crews also set 193 poles, strung 13 miles of overhead wire and worked 4,500 hours of donated man-hours. It marks the second time SRP line workers, based out of the Tempe Service Center, volunteered to participate in Light Up Navajo.

A total of 17 SRP employees participated in the project and SRP donated employee time, line trucks, digging equipment and a mechanic service truck.

“Light Up Navajo III is an initiative to bring power to all the residents on Navajo Nation. There are about 14,000 homes on the Navajo Nation that currently do not have electric service. The vision back in 2019 was to solicit neighboring utility support primarily from public power utilities like SRP to help build the infrastructure to serve the community,” said Wayne Wisdom, the senior director of Distribution Grid Services at SRP. “For generations, these families have been living on their own with the use of generators, kerosene lamps, or whatever they have.”

“There was a mother, daughter and her two kids in Tuba City and they were really excited to have power. The kids were excited to be able to entertain themselves without having to turn on a generator and to watch TV. It was nice to get to see that and use our skills to help out,” said Austin D’addabo, SRP trades helper.

“It’s given me a different outlook on the work we do,” added Peralta. “Sometimes we take it for granted because we do it every single day. But (on the Navajo Nation) it’s not normal for them. They get really excited and are very grateful to get power.”

Along with SRP, the following public power utilities participating in LUN III are:

Two investor-owned utilities are also participating in LUN III: Arizona Public Service and New Mexico’s PNM Resources.

APPA Regional Exercise On Mutual Aid Yields High-Level Lessons Learned

May 11, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
May 11, 2022

A recent regional mutual aid held by the American Public Power Association (APPA) that was hosted by Ohio-based American Municipal Power (AMP) resulted in a series of high-level lessons learned.

The exercise took place on April 27 in Columbus, Ohio, and involved over 50 in-person public utility participants from four states and over 27 communities, including local county emergency managers and DOE regional emergency support function (ESF) #12.  

The ESF #12 Annex is a construct established within the National Response Framework. ESF #12 helps manage the resources required to support energy infrastructure systems, and public and private services and resources.

The exercise was kicked off by introductory remarks from Brandi Martin, Program Manager at DOE’s Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, & Emergency Response.

The full day exercise featured in-depth discussion of emergency response issues including mutual aid and coordination with state, local and federal government.  The scenario for the exercise was a major tornado event causing widespread grid disruptions. This exercise began after the tornado made impact and did not deal with preparatory actions.  

Notable discussions during exercise or captured in a post-exercise review included the following:

In terms of high-level lessons learned, the exercise was very well received. Participants commented on the importance of addressing emergencies during “blue sky” days.  

Participants also commented that they appreciated the chance to participate and that DOE and APPA efforts made this possible.

Another lesson learned is the Importance of knowing peers at adjacent utilities and communities and sharing information with likely mutual aid participants.

The importance of having connections with local government decision-makers before the emergency response was another lesson learned.

Another lesson learned is the importance of having local experts as part of the facilitation teams. Each small group breakout session was led by a local power utility expert and an emergency management/exercise expert. The small groups and the local utility expertise helped draw participants into the discussions.

AMP is the nonprofit wholesale power supplier and services provider for 134 members in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, Indiana, Maryland and Delaware.

The exercise was held under DOE CESER Cooperative Agreement DE-CR0000012.

Interest Relief And Hazard Mitigation Included In Recently Passed House Bill

April 12, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 12, 2022

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) would be required to help pay interest expenses for loans taken out to cover costs that will eventually be repaid with FEMA public assistance grants under legislation recently passed by the House.

Under H.R. 5689, the Resilient Assistance for Mitigation for Environmentally Resilient Infrastructure and Construction by Americans Act (Resilient AMERICA Act), the amount automatically set aside for pre-disaster mitigation funds would also be increased from 6 percent of public assistance granted for the year to 15 percent. 

The interest provision is based on legislation introduced in April of last year by Representatives Neal Dunn (R-FL) and Darren Soto (D-FL) called the FEMA Loan Interest Payment Relief Act (H.R. 2669). This bill was drafted to assist public power utilities and rural electric cooperatives that take out loans to cover disaster-related costs that will eventually be repaid by FEMA.

Under the bill, rural electric cooperatives and public power utilities would be reimbursed for at least some of the interest expense of such loans. Reimbursement would be set at the lesser of either: a) the actual interest paid, or b) the interest that would have been paid if the loan had been set at the prime rate.

The text of H.R. 2669 was incorporated into the Resilient AMERICA Act before being passed by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in October 2021.

The Resilient AMERICA Act was sent to the Senate on April 6 and referred to the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. In addition, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) introduced a companion bill (S. 2212) last year that was also referred to Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.