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Janneke Bruce
The tradition of mutual assistance among electric utilities during emergencies is a long one. In 1952, the industry "formalized" mutual assistance through a program at Edison Electric Institute that created a resource of contacts and telephone numbers for utilities willing to help.
During a restoration effort, the one thing emergency response managers usually lack is time—time to set up conference calls with multiple parties or time to worry about whether help is on the way. They're too busy coordinating, delegating, and responding to the recovery at hand. RestorePower takes the mutual assistance community to the internet, creating an online network of electric companies, contractors, and vendors. It's a web portal designed to bring together restoration resources at any time, in any place, with minimal effort—emergency managers can quickly find information about, send an email to, or post a request to another utility, contractor, or vendor. Companies willing to assist can post the availability of their crews, equipment, and other resources.
The system coordinates conference calls with a number of dedicated lines and sends an email to each user to notify him of the appointment. The system also has a broadcast phone call system, which allows a person to call a specified number, record a message, and broadcast it to a group of selected numbers organized by regions. The system will attempt to call each number several times, ensuring that messages are received quickly. Ken Hall, the program's manager, describes the system as "an electronic version of standing on a street corner with a bullhorn and yelling for help."
Currently more than 60 utilities have signed up for RestorePower. Users have to go through a learning curve before they are comfortable using the technology, according to Hall: "Many managers are used to simply picking up the phone and calling. Once they try using the system, they appreciate the work it does for them." After all, the conventional way, you can only call one person at a time.
To learn more or subscribe, visit www.restorepower.com.
Janneke Bruce is associate editor of Electric Perspectives.
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