One of the important features of the electricity industry is the concept of mutual aid. The idea is that if a major weather event strikes, and an electricity utility is overwhelmed by its scope then other electricity utilities and electrical contractors will help out.
The most recent example of this were the wind storms in Central Ontario this summer. The storms, and the resulting falling trees, took out power for hundreds of thousands of customers for lengthy periods of time that, in some cases, exceeded a week. The hardest hit electricity utility was Hydro One as they serve most of rural Ontario. Even with all the resources they have, the storm was so big that significant additional help was needed. As the storms were primarily focused on Central Ontario, utilities from other parts of Ontario, and beyond, were able to help.
NOTL Hydro sent a crew to provide assistance and they helped out in a number of locations. NOTL Hydro has provided crews to help out after a number of storms recently; particularly in Fort Erie. This has been a change for NOTL Hydro as providing assistance in this manner was not something we previously did. One of the challenges for smaller utilities like NOTL Hydro is the need to ensure it has enough resources on hand to manage any outages and other service work locally. We can never put ourselves in the situation where we cannot respond to the needs of our own customers. Larger utilities, with their larger workforces, can provide assistance knowing they still have enough resources on hand in the event of local needs.
The provision of mutual aid is not altruistic. Utilities that provide mutual aid are compensated at rates that reflect all the overtime and extra resources. The staff that provide the aid are also compensated with overtime pay as per their collective agreements. However, most of these staff will tell you that the real compensation is the satisfaction from restoring powers to customers in need.
There are a number of challenges particular to a weather event requiring mutual aid:
- One is sourcing supplies. Utilities normally keep supplies on hand for their regular work plus what would be needed for larger outages. Events like the ice storm are of a different scale. One of the responsibilities of the incumbent utility is sourcing these supplies from manufacturers, equipment distributors and other utilities. It is not uncommon to see extended lead times on equipment after a major event as everybody subsequently restocks after a major drawdown on inventory. As extreme weather events are becoming more common, utilities are holding higher levels of inventory.
- Another is directing all the additional crews. Outside crews do not have the local knowledge like the incumbent crews nor can they likely access the incumbent’s internal systems. Typically, the local crews end up focusing on providing direction while the outside crews do more of the work. One of the biggest challenges with a large outage is getting local staff to pivot to providing the direction to the other crews rather than do the work themselves which would be their inclination.
- A third challenge is keeping the visiting crews hydrated, fed and housed. This can be a challenge during or immediately after an extreme weather event and when there may not be power in much of the community. The responsibility for this is often split between the incumbent and visiting utilities based on the specific circumstances.
The provision of mutual aid has traditionally been somewhat ad hoc. NOTL Hydro had mutual aid agreements with other Niagara electrical utilities and with other smaller utilities in Ontario. It is desirable to have agreements with utilities in other areas of the province in case the weather event hits your entire region. The agreements provide the template for how mutual aid was compensated but the reality was that these agreements were not necessary, and mutual aid would be accepted from any utility.
This is now changing and the mutual aid process is becoming more formalized. There are two drivers of this change. The first is the emergence of companies whose focus is on providing emergency aid. This can be very lucrative. These companies will have the needed equipment and contracts, often with retired linemen, for qualified staff in the times of need. I recently had a call from someone in Baltimore thanking us for providing mutual aid after a bad storm. We have never provided mutual aid in the United States. It turns out it was a retired lineman who lived in Niagara-on-the-Lake and was doing some work for one of these companies.
The second and more important is an effort being led by Electricity Canada to standardize and improve response times for the mutual aid process. https://www.electricity.ca/programs/onmag/ Having a formal process in place means utilities can put out one call for assistance instead of having to call around and look for support. The faster mutual aid is provided the quicker the power can be restored.