Blog

It’s a reality that emergencies and unplanned events are inevitable in most organizations- but what might be overlooked is that your response is the most critical. Utilities nationwide are jumping through hoops to eliminate operational headaches that negatively impact their overall emergency response and bottom line. Separately managed business systems, lagging technology and seemingly impossible to meet safety standards are just a few of the hurdles that plagued a Midwest gas utility. If the thought of any of these gives you a headache- keep reading to learn three of the innovative ways that improved business processes and helped others fix their problem.

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By Ted Schneider

In an earlier post on Energy Central, a writer proposed new ways utilities could apply proven technologies for tracking workers. Let’s add location services to that list. Many of us carry a smartphone, which, of course, features location services for day-to-day business or personal apps.

By writing an algorithm for the location services feature of a smartphone, tech guys can set the ping rate (or echo protocol) for anywhere from a few seconds to a half hour or more. Why bother doing that? Imagine you’re a damage assessor. As you drive a circuit and get closer to a target, your smartphone ping rate increases. Consequently, alerting the storm center where you are and how quickly you’re moving from asset to asset. Or let’s say you’re a mutual assistance crew headed to help a neighboring utility. As you close in on your destination, we speed up the ping rate to give the storm center a more accurate ETA for you and your crew. Read More

Like all skilled trades across the U.S., the electric industry is finding it hard to fill openings with qualified workers. The nature of the jobs for which utilities need workers is changing, too. While there’s clearly a need for O&M personnel and linemen, there’s also a need for newer roles such as data analysts and cybersecurity specialists. Utilities face a threefold challenge:

• Recruiting for traditional roles, such as line workers, mechanics and pipefitters
• Broadening the skill set of those traditional roles as evolving information and communication technology (ICT) affects the job site
• Predicting the kind of workers needed as emerging and renewable technologies take hold

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By Bill Perry

Jeff Plackis is a staff engineer with PSEG Long Island’s Emergency Planning department in Hicksville, NY. According to its website, PSEG Long Island is a subsidiary of Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated (NYSE:PEG), a publicly traded diversified energy company with annual revenues of $9.1 billion. PSEG Long Island operates the Long Island Power Authority’s electric transmission and distribution system under a 12-year contract. Until last year, PSEG Long Island used the ARCOS Callout Suite as the way to call-out troubleshooters, overhead linemen, underground splicers and substation mechanics for after-hours emergencies. Plackis changed that.  

As PSEG Long Island worked to continually enhance its Emergency Restoration response,  retooling the process of activating employees for their storm roles fell to Plackis. He knew he couldn’t manage the job effectively with his current tools, but he also knew enough about ARCOS to see an opportunity for improvement. Read More

During Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, RMAGs sprang into action to help utility companies and customers. According to the Edison Electric Institute, “More than 10,000 workers were dedicated to the Harvey response and recovery effort, and mutual assistance crews from at least 21 states provided support in Texas and Louisiana.” The RMAG, or regional mutual assistance group, has been around for at least 60 years. The groups give utilities (faced with anything from a regional event to a National Response Event) a mission-critical way to identify, mobilize and manage resources. There are seven RMAGs recognized by EEI across the United States. Each has a leadership team, typically volunteer positions named on a regular cycle.

Without RMAGs, utilities would compete for the same resources, which would delay restoration for customers. Most utility professionals know the RMAGs exist. But the processes and technologies behind the scenes are less known.

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