Submitted by Mitch Gross, Eversource.
BERLIN, Conn. (Aug. 4, 2021) – As the one-year milestone of Tropical Storm Isaias arrives, Eversource is outlining the many changes and improvements made to its storm response procedures over the past 12 months. The energy company’s Emergency Response Plan (ERP) now has new data functionality, increased system capacity and streamlined response processes.
“Since Tropical Storm Isaias, we’ve been listening to our customers, community leaders and regulators, and we’ve used that feedback to improve our Emergency Response Plan (ERP),” said Eversource President of Electric Operations Craig Hallstrom. “Storms are happening more frequently and are more intense. Since Isaias we’ve had 10 significant storms in Connecticut that in total caused more than 409,000 outages across the state and we quickly responded and restored power to our customers. We continue working hard to strengthen the system to better withstand the fierce weather we’ve been seeing. While we can’t prevent storms from happening, we understand that customers depend on us to restore power as quickly and safely as possible and we take that responsibility seriously.”
Among the many improvements, Eversource’s team of community liaisons will be able to provide information more quickly to all 149 communities the company serves. The energy company is also rolling out a new online “municipal hub,” which will be a vital tool for liaisons during storms, allowing them to better communicate with municipalities as the company addresses their priorities, critical facilities and blocked roads. The hub’s outage map will allow local emergency officials to add new information about issues as they happen and see real-time updates regarding the status of their critical facilities and blocked roads.
- Leveraging private contractor crews from the western U.S. to supplement home crews ahead of the storm
- Creating a new team to work directly with municipalities and first responders to prioritize public-safety emergencies, clear blocked roads and speed the response to urgent repairs
- Expanding capacity for online outage reporting and stress-testing the system to handle unusually high call volumes
- Implementing a standard cadence of communications to all communities before, during and after a storm, along with improved training and municipal integration for Community Liaisons
- Increasing outreach to customers with life-threatening medical needs so they stay well-informed during an outage
- Using drone technology and other innovative techniques to more quickly identify what needs to be repaired and in which locations
