Before and After a Storm
What CL&P does before a storm arrives
CL&P continuously monitors weather activity for signs of any potential problems. As soon as it is evident a major storm is approaching, CL&P administrative and field personnel are alerted to prepare support staffing and crews for emergency duty. Other steps taken include:
- Activating the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) at CL&P headquarters in Berlin, Conn., to coordinate overall operations.
- Informing customers through the news media of steps we are taking and providing advice as to how customers can prepare for outages.
- Activating emergency procedures at all regional system operation centers and establishing safety and damage assessment patrols and repair satellites in the regions.
- Checking supplies (poles, transformers, wire, etc.) and deploying them where needed and making arrangements for procurement of additional material if appropriate.
- Fueling and loading all company service and repair vehicles with equipment and supplies.
- Notifying state officials of situation and plans; and arranging for CL&P staffing at the State Emergency Operations Center in Hartford, if it is activated.
- Making arrangements with outside utility companies to provide backup crews if they are available.
- Initiating plans to house and feed personnel involved in restoration.
More than eighty percent of our employees are trained yearly to assume storm assignments in addition to their regular duties. An accountant, for example, may serve on a “wires down” team during a storm, keeping people away from dangerous downed wires. An attorney may serve on the food and lodging team, making arrangements for personnel involved in around-the-clock restoration efforts, for example.
What CL&P does after a storm hits
Our first priority is the safety of our employees and our customers. Immediately after a major storm, workers patrol to locate dangerous areas and take steps to make them safe by de-energizing downed wires. The next step is to restore power to substations and priority customers.
We determine the extent of outages and damages, primarily by CL&P patrols and civil authorities, and make a preliminary assessment of the time and resources necessary to restore power to most customers.
Priority customers are restored first and include police and fire units, hospitals, water and sewage treatment plants, and nursing homes. We keep state, civil and military authorities apprised of conditions, as appropriate, and work with municipal officials to address their particular concerns.
CL&P employs hundreds of crews and will add hundreds of employees from other functions to work on restoration during a severe storm. They fan out over thousands of square miles of roads, many of which may initially be blocked, to cut limbs, remove trees, replace poles, and restore wires. They work extended hours to ensure that the entire system is made safe and your power is restored in a timely manner. In all cases, common sense dictates our crews’ working schedules.
While crews are working in the field, hundreds of CL&P employees are answering phone calls from customers around the clock, working extended hours to collect outage reports, relay orders, and advising the media and customers of what they can expect, based on the information available at the time.
Restoration speed depends on the extent and nature of the storm’s damage, but often, problems arise that can delay repair work. After a major storm, often thousands of streets are without power, and restoration is a time-consuming job for our workers. It takes hours to replace a single broken pole before downed wires can be put back in service. Traffic tie-ups and trees across roads often delay crews from reaching their destination.
The bottom line is CL&P works around the clock until the last customer is restored.