By Steve Baker, President and Chief Operating Officer, Indiana Michigan Power—
FORT WAYNE, IN—Our customers rely on I&M to power their everyday lives. This summer’s sweltering heat and major storm systems that swept across the country posed challenges for many electric utilities, including areas served by Indiana Michigan Power.
I want to say thank you to our customers who were affected by the storms and outages. I also want to let you know what I&M has been doing to make the grid stronger, with fewer outages.
Steve Baker
On June 13, a derecho with record breaking winds of 98 miles per hour left a trail of fallen trees and damaged poles and lines throughout our service territory in both Michigan and Indiana.
Just three weeks later, on July 5, records were again broken as communities in our service area received 5-9 inches of rain. Saturated soil, combined with high winds, resulted in multiple trees and branches impacting power lines. Standing water also complicated restoration efforts, delaying our crews’ ability to access downed equipment.
Both storms left thousands of I&M customers without power for hours or even days. While these two significant events had the widest impact on our customers, additional storm systems also caused damage and service interruptions throughout the summer months.
I&M’s top priority during those times was to safely restore service to power air conditioners, refrigerators and other appliances people count on to get through the hot weather.
The I&M operations team worked long days in high heat and humidity to repair and replace poles and lines. In many situations, they first had to clear trees and branches out of roadways and off power lines before repair work could begin.
I appreciate their hard work and dedication to serving our customers and protecting the public from damage to our electric system. I am most proud of the fact that all our storm restoration events this summer were “Zero Harm” events. That means none of our employees or contractors were injured and everyone returned home in the same orbetter condition than they came to work.
I also want to say thank you to our customers who were affected by the storms and outages. I know that being without electricity is a challenge in the best of times – but especially during a period of high temperatures and humidity. Yet many of you took the time to send words of encouragement and appreciation to I&M employees and crew members from other areas who provided assistance. You donated water. You showed up with ice cream. An anonymous customer even arranged for a sno-cone truck to visit our crews out in the field. Those gestures of kindness meant more than you know.
As we move out of summer storm season, we know that winter weather is just a few months away. People want to know that their electric company is prepared to meet future challenges. The entire I&M team is at work each day to provide safe, reliable, and affordable power. One way we are doing this is to make our grid more resilient. What do I mean by that? Quite simply, when you flip the switch, the lights come on.
When preparing for severe weather, some of our most important actions are related to maintenance and rebuilding of the electrical grid. We reduce potential damage to power lines by managing vegetation. Each year I&M crews trim back 20% of the trees in our service area, meaning that a tree with the potential to interfere with power lines is touched at least once every five years.
Innovative technology is increasingly making the grid “smarter,” with equipment capable of identifying problems and re-routing power before any crews are sent to an outage location. When we are planning capital improvements, our team takes steps to avoid or minimize any potential service interruptions and impacts to our customers.
Unfortunately, technology cannot prevent every outage, as the June 13 derecho with record winds demonstrated. When nature wreaks havoc, the grid still needs dedicated line workers, forestry professionals and support personnel who work valiantly on 16-hour shifts until power is restored to every customer.
In anticipation of situations we cannot control, such as extreme weather, our focus is on preparedness, mitigation and making the power grid more resilient. The I&M team is focused on systematically replacing aging assets with stronger, more durable materials and continuously improving our storm restoration processes to better serve customers.
Evidence that our efforts are paying off are most clearly demonstrated when we compare the derechos that hit our area in June 2012 and earlier this summer. In the 2012 derecho event, approximately 109,000 customers lost power and total restoration of service lasted up to 8 days. Compare that to the 3.5 days it took us to restore power to 42,000 customers this past June.
Even though the winds were stronger, there were significantly less customers who experienced a loss of power. For customers who did lose power, it took us considerably less time to restore their electric service.
What accounts for this? Our proactive approach to tree trimming, upgrading our electric distribution system, building new transmission sources and our focus on emergency management. This matters not only when we are faced with summer storms, but also as we anticipate ice and snow in the months ahead. For our customers, it means fewer outages and faster restoration times.
Although we are committed to providing safe, reliable, and affordable electric service, we cannot prevent all outage situations. However, if we do encounter a situation, whether it is a storm or high demand on the system, I&M will be forthcoming and transparent with the information in a timely manner. That is our commitment to you. And we expect you, as our customers, to hold us accountable to that, not just by our words, but by our actions. Thank you for you the privilege of being your electric service provider.
To provide you with the best customer experience possible, we invite you to partner with us. To learn more about how you can save energy at work and home, visit www.electricideas.com.
Related article below.
It’s National Energy Awareness Month: Tips From Indiana Michigan Power
