The Florida Municipal Electric Association recently detailed the progress made in power restoration efforts by public power utility crews in the state in the wake of Hurricane Helene.
Power restoration efforts were also progressing in other states impacted by Helene including North Carolina and South Carolina.
Florida public power utilities have restored more than 500,000 outages and as of noon on Sept. 29, 11,079 Florida public power customers remained without power, Amy Zubaly, Executive Director, Florida Municipal Electric Association, said on Sept. 29.
Within 48 hours of landfall, more than 99 percent of customers served by Florida public power utilities had power, she noted.
“We greatly appreciate the assistance of 46 public power utilities from 11 states, including Florida, who have made this restoration effort possible,” Zubaly said.
“While public power crews in areas with outages continue working around the clock in the most challenging areas to restore power to every single customer, other public power crews have been able to assist in neighboring communities served by cooperative utilities,” she said, adding “Our thoughts are with all the communities in Florida and the Southeast that have been impacted by this unprecedented storm.”
Santee Cooper
South Carolina’s Santee Cooper on Saturday, Sept. 28, said its distribution crews had restored all residential and commercial power outages caused by Hurricane Helene and were now helping utilities in other parts of the state restore those distribution systems.
Santee Cooper transmission crews were continuing work to restore the utility’s nearly statewide transmission system, which serves South Carolina’s electric cooperatives and several municipal utilities, it said.
Santee Cooper on Sept. 29 reported its crews had brought back online all but one of the 116 transmission substations that were out of service following Hurricane Helene, with just one delivery point to Aiken Electric Cooperative still out of service as of Sunday afternoon.
“Our folks have worked very hard to get to this point, which is critical in helping affected electric cooperatives and municipal utilities continue to restore service to their affected members,” said Jimmy Staton, President and CEO. “Much work remains, and as we make progress on our own system, we will continue to send those crews we can spare to help our fellow utilities bring their customers back online.”
Also on Sept. 29, Santee Cooper increased its controlled spill of water through Lake Marion’s Santee Dam spillway to 80,000 cubic feet of water per second (cfs), up from 60,000 cfs Sept. 28. "Santee Cooper’s dams and dikes are secure, and the controlled spill is creating space for anticipated major inflows coming into the lake in the next few days, to protect he integrity of the lake system’s dams and dikes."
The Santee Cooper Lakes are fed by a watershed stretching into North Carolina. That watershed, inundated by Hurricane Helene, is sending excess water to Lake Marion, both through increased river flows and spilling by other utilities upstream. Spilling is a normal part of Santee Cooper’s hydroelectric operations in such periods of escalated inflows into the lake system.
OPPD Deploys Mutual Aid Support
On Sept. 28, Nebraska public power utility Omaha Public Power District said it was answering a call for additional power restoration support in the Southeast.
OPPD joined several other utilities from Nebraska that headed south in advance of the storm to pre-stage for restoration work.
With 4 million electric customers in the dark as of Friday, a mutual aid request was extended to the Midwest Mutual Aid Group, OPPD said.
OPPD made a team available to deploy, and Appalachian Power in Charleston, West Virginia took us up on that offer.
A 16-person mutual aid team hit the road early on the morning on Sept. 28, taking off from Nebraska City. The team consists of four three-person line crews, a member of OPPD’s safety team, a supervisor and two transportation mechanics. They were expected to reach Charleston by Sunday afternoon.
“Our employees were eager to help. Some of the Line Techs called me earlier in the week, asking when and where we were going,” said Eli Schiessler, OPPD Transmission & Distribution center manager.
“The work is extremely tough, but restoring power and helping out communities in need is why many of them chose this line of work.”
On Sept. 30, OPPD said that its crews stayed overnight Saturday in Mount Vernon, Va., and left Sunday morning for Beckley, West Virginia. They arrived in Beckley shortly after 6 p.m. Sunday and rested up to start power restoration work in that area the morning of Sept. 30. They are working primarily in remote and rural areas right now, supporting Appalachian Power’s restoration efforts.
This is the third time this year OPPD has deployed to provide mutual aid to fellow utilities in need.
It supported Evergy in the Kansas City area in January, as well as MidAmerican Energy in northern Iowa and ComEd in southern Illinois after powerful winds caused extensive damage to trees and power lines in mid-July. All three utilities returned the favor, coming to OPPD’s aid when more than 220,000 customers lost power in the historic July 31st storm.
“It’s extremely gratifying to pay it forward,” said Brian Kramer, senior director of Utilities Operation & Maintenance. “That’s what mutual aid is all about.”
Public Power Utilities Help Bristol Tennessee Essential Services
Meanwhile, Alabama public power utility Huntsville Utilities received a mutual aid request from Bristol Tennessee Essential Services, which was hit particularly hard by the remnants of Hurricane Helene. “A few hours later, nine of our lineworkers began their trip to Bristol,” Huntsville Utilities said.
Along with Huntsville Utilities, crews from Tennessee’s Jackson Energy Authority and Alabama’s Russellville Utilities also deployed to help Bristol Tennessee Essential Services.
“We are so thankful to Huntsville Utilities, Jackson Energy Authority, and Russellville Utilities for helping us make repairs following the significant damage caused by Hurricane Helene. One of the many great benefits of public power is the mutual aid partnerships,” Bristol Tennessee Essential Services said in a Facebook post.
“We would also be remiss if we didn’t mention the behind-the-scenes work that goes into supporting our crews so that they can solely focus on the job at hand - restoring services. From meals to materials to dispatching to engineering to bird-dogging to logistics, many BTES employees are working to support our line workers,” Bristol Tennessee Essential Services said.
TVA
Transmission recovery efforts continue in northeast Tennessee, the Tennessee Valley Authority reported on Sept. 29.
“Local outages have decreased from over 100,000 to 22,000. We are working with local power companies to restore service in communities and are providing mutual aid to our neighbors at Duke in North Carolina,” it said.
