Politics & Government

After Irene: PECO to Participate in Electric Reliability Forum

The event will address how electric utilities prepared for the storm as well as how they handled the aftermath.

On Sept. 21, the Pa. Public Utility Commission (PUC) announced that it would hold a Special Electric Reliability Forum on Oct. 12, 2011, to hear from the state’s electric utilities whose distribution systems were affected by Hurricane Irene, including PECO and its thousands of customers in Bucks and Montgomery counties.

The special forum will address pre-planning as Hurricane Irene approached the east coast as well as communications with customers and efforts to restore service during and after the storm. Commissioners will be present for the forum, which will be conducted by the PUC’s Bureau of Technical Utility Services.

On Aug. 27, Hurricane Irene hit the east coast bringing with it high winds and heavy rain.  At the height of the storm, about 768,000 customers were without power, while overall there were more than 1.3 million customer outages throughout the storm. Pennsylvania has about 5.6 million electric customers. Some customers remained without power for up to 10 days.

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“As Hurricane Irene bowled through the state, our electric utilities were faced with an historic number of outages,” said PUC Chairman Robert F. Powelson. “By taking a step back and looking at how the utilities responded and where we can make improvements allows us to strive for an even more effective response in the future. The forum will provide an opportunity to hear from the affected utilities as well as a chance for the public to share their experiences.”

The hearing is an offshoot of the PUC’s annual summer and winter reliability assessment meetings which are held in advance of the summer cooling and winter heating seasons. The forum will be held from 1:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 12 at the Commonwealth Keystone Building, 400 North St., Harrisburg.

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PUC Emergency Preparedness Coordinator Dan Searfoorce will summarize the events related to Hurricane Irene, the overall magnitude of the statewide outages and the role of the PUC as it related to these outages.  The Commission is inviting operational personnel from electric utilities including PECO to participate in the forum. The utilities will be asked to address:

  • The preparation, pre-planning, and pre-staging of personnel, materials and equipment;
  • The number and length of the outages and restoration process;
  • Outreach to contractors and other utilities;
  • Specific issues associated with weather, geography, etc., that inhibited faster restorations;
  • Customer communications and outreach;
  • What went well and could serve as success stories for future restorations; and
  • What could have been done better – lessons learned.

An opportunity for the public to offer comment will occur at the conclusion of the formal remarks.


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