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BWL December 2013 Ice Storm Outage Report | Ice | Storms
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Pursuant to Board Resolution 2014-01-02, attached herewith please find a copy of the “top to bottom” review of the BWL’s ice storm response. The review incorporates comments, recommendations and answers questions raised during the three Community Forums. It also identifies 54 actions that the BWL has undertaken, is in the process of undertaking, or will undertake in the near future to improve its storm response.
J. Peter Lark February 18, 2014 Lansing, Michigan
1201 S. Washington Ave
517-702-6710
EXeCUTIVe SUMMARY I.	INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PAGe 15 A.	Overview of Severe Storms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 16 B.	Description of BWL’s Service Territory and Electric Distribution Infrastructure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 19 C.	The Ice Storm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 20 D.	Impact of Ice Storm on BWL’s Service Territory and Electric Distribution System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 22 II.	STORM PRepARATIONs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PAGe 24 A.	Response Plans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 24 B.	Monitor Weather Forecasts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 25 C.	Training Personnel and Securing Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 26 D.	System Hardening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 27 III.	OUTAGe ResTORATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .PAGe 31 A.	Damage Assessment and Spotter Crews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 31 B.	Crew Deployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 34 C.	Restoration Priorities and Timing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 37 D.	Logistic Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 41 E.	Internal Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 42 F.	Outage Assessment Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 43 G.	Lessons Learned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 46 IV.	CUsTOMeR COMMUNICATIONs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PAGe 47 A.	BWL Call center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 47 B.	Twenty-First Century Call Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 50 C.	BWL Internet Website . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 54 D.	BWL Email System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 54 E.	BWL Outage Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 55 V.	VI.	VII.	VIII.	MANAGeMeNT OF STORM RespONse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PAGe 57 EXTeRNAL COMMUNICATIONs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PAGe 60 SUMMARY OF RespONses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PAGe 63 SUMMARY OF pUBLIC COMMeNTs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PAGe 70
ATTACHMeNT A: COMpARATIVe ReLIABILITY INDICes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PAGe 72 ATTACHMeNT B: BWL ELeCTRIC SeRVICe TeRRITORY MAp . . . . . . . . . . .PAGe 74 ATTACHMeNT C: BWL CUsTOMeR ResTORATION CURVe. . . . . . . . . . . . .PAGe 75 ATTACHMeNT D: TweNTY-FIRsT CeNTURY CUsTOMeR LIsT . . . . . . . . . . PAGe 76 AppeNDIX: TRANsCRIpTs FROM COMMUNITY FORUM
EXeCUTIVe SUMMARY The December 2013, ice storm was the most catastrophic event to ever hit the Lansing Board of Water & Light’s (BWL) electric service territory. While the duration of the restoration effort was neither better nor worse than other similar restoration efforts based on national data, it did cause significant hardship and suffering for customers who were out of service during the holiday season. The combination of disrupted holiday plans, the duration of outages and the cold weather was particularly difficult for the BWL’s customers. In the wake of the storm the BWL pledged a top-down review of its performance during the ice storm and its aftermath. This report fulfills that pledge. Ice storms frequently result in a large number of extended outages because falling branches and trees take down individual services, secondary distribution lines, single and three phase primary lines, and can even damage high voltage transmission lines. Simply stated, they impact every segment of a utility’s transmission and distribution system. These storms typically occur during the year when daylight hours are at a minimum and temperatures are below freezing, so crews must protect themselves from exposure. They may be accompanied by snow storms that further hinder restoration efforts. Unless the ice melts quickly, branches and trees continue to break days after the storm has passed damaging lines that had been repaired only days earlier. The BWL’s crews experienced all these difficulties and in their restoration efforts. The ice storm resulted in approximately 40% of the BWL’s customers losing power; there has been no comparable loss among Michigan utilities. The BWL sustained over 2,400 downed power lines and replaced 5 miles of service lines, or half the normal annual volume, in the ten day restoration period. The volume of restoration work was unprecedented. The BWL conducted a special public hearing to take comments from its customers on January 7th and the BWL also received comments from its customers at a meeting of the Committee of the Whole on January 14th. The staff of the BWL then conducted three Community Forum meetings on January 15th, 16th, and 17th in East Lansing, Delta Township and Lansing respectively. During the Community Forums, staff requested that BWL electric customers provide comments regarding their experiences during the storm, make recommendations to the BWL to improve its storm response, and to ask questions, which the staff pledged to answer in this top-down review.1 The BWL’s storm response is designed around industry best practices. This begins with storm preparations which include monitoring weather, training personnel, and “hardening” the system for storm impact. Prior to the ice storm, the BWL operations staff was monitoring the storm and preparing for its impact, but could not anticipate the unprecedented damage that it created.
See Appendix 1 for transcripts from the three Community Forum Meetings
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The BWL followed its restoration plan and restored power to all of its system in ten days. Two important components of the BWL’s Outage Management System (OMS), however, were not working, the conductor cut and Integrated Voicemail Response (IVR) call processors, which resulted in inaccurate and contradictory information being provided to customers. Because the OMS is also used to provide an estimated restoration time for customers, that information was also unavailable. Although the conductor cut was awaiting a patch when ice storm occurred, this was a critical component of the OMS needed to convey outage information to the BWL Call Center and customers. The BWL should have been more diligent in assuring this issue was resolved sooner. Customers complained about long telephone wait times and difficulty contacting anyone at the BWL to inquire about their outages. Customers were uncertain if their outage reports were being acknowledged, and local officials were unhappy with the lack of information being supplied by the BWL on restoration progress and times. Prior to the ice storm, the BWL did not have a crises communications plan. During a crisis, the BWL should be able to respond promptly and accurately to different audiences with information specific to their needs. The BWL did not have such a plan. The BWL has worked hard to gain a reputation for reliability and safety. Having a storm response time on par with other utilities facing similar conditions is not good enough for the BWL or its customers. This report identifies 54 actions that the BWL has already undertaken, is in the process of undertaking or will undertake to improve its catastrophic storm response. Most of these are refinements to existing practices and procedures that have worked well in previous storms. Others are new initiatives that will be part of ongoing practices and procedures. The following list is represents the actions to improve the BWL’s storm response capabilities. They cover every aspect of a severe storm from preparation to communications. A.	Storm Preparation: 1.	The BWL will include its distribution plan in its annual table top tests designed to stress its emergency response and will use the results to continually improve its emergency plans. 2.	The BWL will consider implementing a set of triggers into its distribution plan. 3.	The BWL will consolidate its Transmission and its Distribution emergency response plans into one document.
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4.	The BWL will investigate the benefit of collaborating with other Michigan utilities to track and estimate the impact of inclement weather. 5.	Based on the BWL’s experience with the impact of the ice storm, the BWL will make use of additional secondary role employees and these roles will be discussed in subsequent sections. 6.	Most utilities have not found placing overhead lines underground to be cost effective. Instead reviewing maintenance practices and construction standards seems to be a more reasonable method for improving the resiliency of the BWL’s distribution system. However, for those customers who want and are willing to pay for undergrounding existing services, the BWL will provide the service. 7.	The BWL will strictly adhere to a 5 year trimming cycle and is in the process of modifying its tree trimming standards and procedures to remove all branches located above distribution lines and better protect its lines during a major storm. 8.	The BWL will begin to use multiple tree trimming contractors and assign work to contractors based on past performance. The contractor with the best record of performance will get a larger portion of the work. Recently, the BWL temporarily increased the number of tree trimming crews under contract to eighteen. 9.	The BWL will publish the contact information for its supervisor responsible for trimming scheduling so customers can contact the supervisor directly with questions or complaints regarding tree trimming procedures and workmanship. B.	Outage Restoration Actions: 10.	The BWL is in the process of carefully reviewing spotter duty during the ice storm and determining how many additional trained spotters would be needed to efficiently secure down lines and provide timely damage assessment during an event with the destructive impact of the ice storm. Based on this analysis, the BWL will survey its staff for additional personnel who would be suitable for spotter duty and train personnel for both spotter and damage assessment duty. 11.	The BWL will also utilize retired line workers to perform damage assessments and serve as spotters. 12.	The BWL will consider contracting with electric service firms for damage assessment services to supplement its own staff. 8 x Page
13.	The BWL is developing common reporting forms and methods to be used by all spotters and damage assessors and will stress the importance of adhering to these during the annual training sessions. 14.	The BWL will evaluate the use of damage predictive tools to determine if these tools could help in assessing possible damage earlier in a storm’s approach. 15.	The BWL will remind customers that lines marked with red and white tape are power lines and the tape indicates that the BWL is aware that the line is down. The BWL will publish this information on its website and Customer Connections newsletter. 16.	The BWL has expanded the number of utilities and non-utility electric service contractors with which it has mutual aid agreements or service contracts. The list is shown below. Existing Agreements •	Michigan Municipal Electric Association (35 Municipal Utilities) •	Consumers Energy New Agreements •	American Public Power Association •	Asplundh •	Kent Power •	Hydaker-Wheatlake •	FEMA Mutual Aid (Upon a Declaration of a State of Emergency) Pending Agreements •	DTE Energy (Under Negotiations) These agreements both increase the number of potential crew sources and provide geographical diversity as well. For example the APPA agreement would enable the BWL to bring crews in from a number of different states. In the event of a declaration of emergency, the FEMA agreement would allow the BWL to bring in crews from nearly anywhere in the United States. 17.	The BWL is in the process of hiring 3 additional line workers and an additional dispatcher to supplement its workforce and to help manage crews during the restoration process. Page x 9
18.	With the addition of 3 line workers, an additional dispatcher, more trained spotters, and the new mutual aid agreements the BWL has tripled the number of line crews that are available for immediate deployment and can be used safely and efficiently during a major outage event. 19.	The BWL does update its critical and public safety lists periodically to ensure that it is up to date and complete. The BWL will share its overall restoration plans with local public officials so that they can be kept up to date on the BWL’s restoration plans. If another catastrophic storm does occur, local officials will be better able to respond to citizen inquiries regarding the restoration progress. 20.	The BWL will review it’s storm inventory based on the recent ice storm. 21.	The BWL will investigate connecting its line truck laptops to its OMS system as a tool to assist crews with storm responses. 22.	The BWL has resolved the matters related to the OMS functionality. The conductor cuts are now operational and the OMS performs to design standards. 23.	To avoid this situation with other outage tools that may be employed in the future, the BWL will conduct annual stress tests of all its restoration tools including, but not limited to the OMS, outage call in number, Customer Service Center, and Communications plans. 24.	The BWL is moving forward with a project to implement smart grid and smart meter technology, which will allow it to identify individual customer outages. It will also develop a policy that will allow customers to “opt out” of smart meter use. C.	Customer Communications: 25.	The BWL is hiring additional call center staff. 26.	The BWL has implemented a process to assure call forward to the 877 number occurs during large outages. This will allow CSR and supporting staff to concentrate on line down, voice mail and other communications mediums. 27.	The BWL will trigger the IVR in the 877 system to direct non-matched callers to voicemail during major outage events.
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28.	The BWL has reconfigured the Call Center to send messages in the voice mailbox to CSR’s automatically. 29.	The BWL is aggressively advertised the 877 number for outages including all available communications mediums, like magnets, social media, BWL Website, and other customer communications. 30.	During a major outage, the BWL Call Center staff will focus their efforts on responding to email, texts, Facebook, Twitter, Nixle and voicemails left on the outage reporting system with the goal of responding to storm related inquiries in a timely fashion. The BWL has expanded the number of employees in secondary storm roles to assist with these customer service functions. 31.	The BWL will ensure that the distribution plan weather forecasting and storm preparation function include employees who are directly or indirectly, through secondary roles, responsible for customer service. This, along with other changes, will assure that the BWL can respond to customer inquiries promptly. 32.	The BWL is working with the 877 vendor to provide additional methods for customers to be identified or matched when calling in to report an outage. This may include using the last digits of an account number or social security number. 33.	The interface between the 877 number and the OMS has been fixed and alarms will be added on each system to alert staff of any problems in the future. 34.	The BWL has added text outage reporting to the 877 system to offer customers another method for reporting outages. 35.	The BWL is working on a method to provide quicker updating of customer data from BWL system to 877 system. This is intended to provide better matches of customers to service addresses. 36.	The BWL is working to improve its ability to automatically call back customers and provide them with updated outage information. 37.	The BWL will continue its enhancements to its phone system. The enhancements will use newer technology to increase Internet bandwidth, increase available phone lines, and make the system fully redundant across the BWL private city-wide network. This upgrade will allow the system to
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dynamically increase the number of available lines to the call center during a large outage, using many of them to forward calls to the 877 vendor site which is designed for large volumes. 38.	The BWL has increased the TFCC voice mailbox size to 8,000 messages and is in the process of contracting with another vendor to assist in responding to voice mailbox messages during a large outage. 39.	The BWL is investigating a separate site created just for outage information (including outage maps). This will help ensure that the BWL’s outage website will be available to customers in the event that a catastrophic outage disables the BWL’s main website. 40.	Although the external email to Customer Service functioned normally during the storm, the BWL is investigating establishing a redundant external email system. 41.	The BWL has developed a temporary web-based outage map for its website. The BWL is also working with a local vendor for a permanent outage map linked directly to the BWL’s OMS system. Phase I of the project covering functionality has been completed and development is underway. Phase I is expected to be completed soon. 42.	In Phase II of the project, the BWL plans to continue enhancements to all of its Information Systems that interact with customers. The next phase of the outage map product for BWL will include further interaction with BWL customers, allowing them to identify themselves to learn if our system shows them specifically out as well as possibly reporting an outage through the map system to our OMS system. Other enhancements and features are being evaluated. 43.	In addition to using twitter and Facebook, the BWL is investigating the use of Nixle to communicate outage and other information to its customers. D.	Management of Storm Response: 44.	The BWL will work with customers and local officials to determine how to make local officials aware of seniors, customers with medical alerts, and other vulnerable populations during extended outages.
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45.	The BWL will be more proactive informing customers of where their responsibility for service ends, the service mast, and the BWL’s begins. 46.	The BWL will maintain a list of qualified electricians who can repair service masts and the BWL will help customers finance the cost of mast repair by allowing customers to pay it off on their bill over a one year period without interest. A list of qualified electricians will appear on the BWL’s website. 47.	During events like the ice storm, the BWL will work with local organizations to maintain warming centers in the winter and cooling centers in the summer for Lansing area residents. 48.	As an integral part of the Lansing community, the BWL will work with other organizations to respond to crisis that may affect mid-Michigan in the future. The BWL is supporting work by The Power of We and others to help empower neighborhoods to react to any type of emergency. The BWL pledges to be a part of that coalition and play its part in protecting the Lansing community and to meet with neighborhood associations to explain the BWL storm response plans and listen to their concerns and questions. E.	External Communications: 49.	Since ice storm outage restoration, the BWL’s service territory has experienced a number of severe winter weather events, and four separate outage events ranging from 100 outages to 7,400 outages. In all of the severe weather events, the BWL has posted, on all communications channels, at least two days prior to the forecasted weather, warning customers about the impending storm and directing them to call the BWL “877” outage number if they lost power. The BWL has also continuously posted updates, cold weather safety tips, and City of Lansing updates. 50.	During the outages, the BWL has acknowledged the time the outage began, the number of outages, the cause of the outage, the geographic area of the outage that can be found on the outage map, the projected time of restoration, and full restoration all clear. 51.	Communication improvements have been noted on Facebook and Twitter with positive comments by our customers.
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52.	The BWL has retained the communications firm of Martin Waymire to help develop a crisis communications plan based on an examination of best practices across the utility industry to make sure it has a strong crisis communications protocol in place in the very near future. Martin Waymire will also assist during emergencies if needed. In the meantime, the BWL has a working interim crisis communications plan. 53.	The BWL has also hired a social media specialist, a newly created position. The social media specialist will help develop strategies on how to best communicate with our customers over all social media channels. 54.	The BWL will provide information to state and local officials on a regular basis. During an event like the ice storm, it will assign a liaison to state and local officials to answer questions that they may have from their constituents.
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The December 2013, ice storm (hereafter referred to as “the ice storm”) was the most catastrophic event to ever hit the Lansing Board of Water & Light’s (BWL) electric service territory. While the duration of the restoration effort was neither better nor worse than other similar restoration efforts based on national data, it did cause significant hardship and suffering for customers who were out of service during the holiday season. The combination of disrupted holiday plans, the duration of outages and the cold weather was particularly difficult for the BWL’s customers. In the wake of the storm the BWL pledged a top-down review of its performance during the ice storm and its aftermath. This report fulfills that pledge. The BWL also conducted a special public hearing to take comments from its customers on January 7th and also received comments from its customers at a meeting of the Committee of the Whole on January 14th. The staff of the BWL then conducted three Community Forum meetings on January 15th, 16th, and 17th in East Lansing, Delta Township and Lansing respectively. During the Community Forums, staff requested that BWL electric customers provide comments regarding their experiences during the storm, make recommendations to the BWL to improve its storm response, and to ask questions, which the staff pledged to answer in this top-down review. 2 In addition to this report, Mayor Virg Bernero has also asked a Citizens Review Team (CRT), headed by Michael McDaniel to perform an independent review of the BWL’s response to the ice storm. This report will be made available to the CRT to aid in their investigation. This report will also be reviewed by the Michigan Public Service Commission (PSC), which is also investigating the ice storm responses of Consumers Energy Company and DTE Energy. Finally, this report is being made available to all BWL customers who requested a copy and will also be available to the general public on the BWL’s website. The BWL looks forward to the review by the CRT and the PSC and any recommendations that they might make to improve the BWL’s electric distribution storm response plans. This report is composed of three broad parts. First is a general discussion of winter storms, their impacts, and the BWL’s service territory, Section I. Second is the actual restoration, most of which conforms closely to utility best practices in the aftermath of a major storm, Sections II and III. Third is a discussion of customer and external party communications and the BWL’s crisis management followed by a summary of actions and recommendations for improvement, Sections IV through VII. In total, this report identifies 54 actions that the BWL has already undertaken, is in the process of undertaking or will undertake to improve its catastrophic storm response. Most of these are refinements to existing practices and procedures that have worked well in previous storms. Others are new initiatives that will be part of ongoing practices and procedures. Substantially all the questions posed by commenters during the Community Forum
See Appendix for transcripts from the three Community Forum Meetings
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meetings are answered in the discussion that follows. A brief summary of customer comments received by the BWL at the three Community Forums is included in Section VIII, with the full texts found in Appendix A. A.	Overview of Severe Storms
The ice storm was exceptionally destructive to the BWL’s distribution system and its reputation. The BWL has worked hard over the years to improve the safety and reliability of its electric distribution system. This commitment is evidenced by the BWL consistently outperforming other Michigan utilities on standard reliability metrics. Attachment A shows the BWL’s reliability performance relative to other Michigan utilities. The compact nature of the BWL’s service territory normally provides the BWL with an advantage in routine maintenance and outage restoration. The historical performance of the BWL’s reliability indices demonstrates that the BWL has taken advantage of its service territory to be one of the most reliable service providers in the state and the nation. One major disadvantage of this service territory, however, is its vulnerability to a direct and major storm impact. Severe storms can impact 100% of the BWL’s customers; however utilities with a wider geographical service territory may have a much smaller percentage of their customers out of service. While other utilities may have resources spread throughout their service territory to draw on in a storm, smaller geographical utilities, like the BWL, do not have additional internal crews to draw upon. This effect is evident from the ice storm. One of the most common measures of the impact of a severe storm is the percentage of customer outages caused by a storm. The ice storm hit the entire BWL service territory and resulted in 40% of the BWL’s customers being out of service. The same storm hit Consumers Energy’s and DTE Energy’s service territories and resulted in approximately 23% and 10% of their customers being out of service respectively. The BWL has never experienced comparable damage to its service territory, nor has any other Michigan utility experienced such extensive damage to their system. Since 2003, the PSC has required utilities under its jurisdiction to annually report information on catastrophic storms. The Commission defines a catastrophic storm as a storm that results in 10% or more of a utility’s customers being out of service or for which a state of emergency has been declared by a unit of government. Figure 1 compares the impact of previous catastrophic storms on Michigan’s largest utilities with the ice storm’s impact on the BWL’s service territory. In some years, Consumers Energy and DTE Energy have experienced more than one storm that resulted in 10% or more of their customers out of service. 16 x Page
Since service restoration time is related to the severity of the damage done by a storm, it is difficult to judge, or benchmark, the BWL’s restoration effort by the experience of other Michigan utilities, as none have experienced a storm of comparable severity. Storms that can create this severity do occur elsewhere in the country. These include tropical storms, ice storms, and other particularly severe or unusual weather events. Although these severe storms have unique features, they also have some similarities, particularly ice storms. Ice storms result in a large number of individual outages because falling branches and trees take down individual services, secondary distribution lines, single and three phase primary lines, and can even damage high voltage transmission lines. Simply stated, they impact every segment of a utility’s transmission and distribution system. These storms typically occur during the year when daylight hours are at a minimum and temperatures are below freezing, so crews must protect themselves from exposure. They may be accompanied by snow storms that further hinder restoration efforts. Unless the ice melts quickly, branches and trees continue to break days after the storm has passed as weakened branches and trees finally give way and break. The BWL and its crews experienced all these difficulties in their restoration efforts.
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These characteristics of ice storms mean that outage restoration times following ice storms are frequently prolonged. Figure 2 below shows restoration times for other utilities in the United States that have also experienced severe ice or winter storm events and the percentage of their customers who were out of service.3 This data compares to the BWL’s 40% customers out of service and ten day restoration.
16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 10
Restoration times following the catastrophic storms depend on the utility’s transmission and distribution design, construction and maintenance, the geography of the service territory, and type of storm to name just a few factors. For winter storms, it also depends on whether the ice melts quickly or not after the storm, any additional snow or ice accumulation during the restoration period, crew working conditions, hours of daylight, type and scope of damage incurred, and other factors all impact restoration times. This makes benchmarking restoration times after severe storms impossible without numerous qualifiers. Nevertheless, while not exhaustive, Figure 2 demonstrates that winter storms similar to the ice storm typically require an extended restoration period and based on the experience of other utilities, the BWL’s ten day restoration period does not appear to be exceptional, neither good nor bad. The BWL, however, is not content with a typical response. It has worked hard to be among the very most reliable utilities in the state and country. This report documents changes that the BWL has already undertaken, is in the process of undertaking, or plans to undertake in the near future to improve its storm response plans, procedures, and capabilities.
In order of low to high customer outages Kentucky Power, Public Service Electric & Gas, Kentucky Utilities, Jersey Central Power & Light, Toronto Hydro, Unitil, National Grid, Public Service of New Hampshire, and Connecticut Light & Power.
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B.	Description of the BWL’s Service Territory The BWL’s electric service territory comprises the cities of Lansing, East Lansing, as well as portions of Delta, Delhi, Dewitt, Lansing, Meridian, Watertown and Windsor townships. The BWL has a total of approximately 96,000 electric customers. Attachment B shows the BWL’s electric service territory. To serve this area, the BWL maintains 48 miles of overhead 138 kV transmission lines and 1,198 miles of overhead distribution lines. The BWL’s primary distribution system operates at 13.2 kV. The BWL also maintains 681 miles of underground distribution circuits, 25 substations, and 242 circuits. It is interconnected to the interstate bulk electric system (the grid) at two interconnection points, the Enterprise and Davis substations. The BWL’s distribution system has been designed with several features to maintain distribution reliability, especially when faults occur on the system. A fault occurs when the normal flow of electricity along a circuit is interrupted, for example by a line break or a tree contacting the power line. When a fault occurs, customers can lose power and utility distribution and generation equipment can be damaged or destroyed. The BWL employs a variety of measures to protect equipment and minimize the impact that a fault may have on its customers. One such measure is that most of the BWL’s primary circuits have multiple feeds, so if one fails an alternate feed can supply electricity. In addition, to minimize the impact of a fault (circuit interruption) on customers, the BWL makes use of switches, fuses, reclosers and breakers to sectionalize its circuits. Switches are used to isolate a portion of a circuit in the event a fault occurs on the circuit. By isolating a section that has been interrupted by a fault, power can be quickly restored to the remaining portions of the circuit, limiting the number of customers without service. The BWL also makes use of faulted current indicators to assist in detecting where faults occur on its distribution system. These devices can either be read remotely or must be viewed on location to determine if they detect a fault. Faulted current indicators can reduce outage restoration times by reducing the time needed to locate a fault on the distribution system. Circuit breakers (breakers) are devices that operate to protect electric substation equipment in the event of a fault occurring on a circuit. When a fault occurs, the breaker will open, interrupting the flow of electricity to the circuit in order to protect the substation equipment from being overloaded. Once the fault is cleared, restoration can begin immediately because the substation equipment has been protected by the breaker.
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Reclosers operate to protect distribution equipment and customers located upstream of a fault. If a fault does occur, for example, a tree contacts a distribution line; the reclosers will initially open the circuit interrupting power to customers downstream of the fault. After briefly opening and interrupting power, the recloser will make one or more attempts following preprogramed protocols to close the circuit and restore power. Most of the time recloser operations are successful with service preserved and equipment protected after normal tree or branch contact with a power line. If the circuit cannot be restored, only customers downstream of the fault lose power. These features have worked well in the past to help the BWL isolate and minimize the impact line breaks or other faults on customers and maintain reliability indices consistently better than industry averages. The strategy helped bring approximately 90% of customers who lost power back during the storm into service within four days. The scope of the ice storm, however, with more than 2,400 lines down and an enormous number of tree and branch contacts with distribution lines meant that the sectionalizing strategy was of limited use to the 10% of customers who remained without power for the last six days. C.	The Ice Storm
Ice storms form when multiple layers of air of different temperatures are present. They begin with precipitation, as snow in an upper layer of air that is at or below freezing. As the snow falls, it passes through a second layer of air with a temperature that is above freezing. Passing through the warmer layer, the snow turns to rain and then falls through a third layer of air, which is below 32 degrees. As it falls through this cold layer near the earth’s surface, it either freezes again, becoming sleet, or it super cools while remaining in a liquid state and contacts tree limbs and power lines. After contacting these items, which are below freezing, the precipitation turns to ice. Ice storms frequently occur in a narrow band, typically thirty miles wide,4 with precipitation occurring as snow or rain on either side of the freezing rain. Slight variations in the path of a winter storm can make a big difference in the type of precipitation falling on a service territory. The Lansing community was hit directly by freezing rain from the storm on December 21st. The freezing rain combined with an air temperature near the surface of 25 to 32 degrees can cause the accumulation of glare ice on surfaces.5 Conditions in mid-Michigan were beginning to be favorable for glare ice on the morning of Saturday, December 21st. Precipitation for the day was light and freezing rain totaling .54 inches. Temperatures remained at freezing until about 9:00 a.m., when they fell to between
Ice Storms: Hazardous Beauty, Dr. Keith C. Heirdorn, 1998. See also www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/elements/icestorm.htm. 5 Ibid.
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30 and 31 degrees. Wind speeds also increased through the evening of the 21st, with hourly speed averaging 12 with gusts up to 38 mph. These winds add to the loading stress on tree limbs and power lines thus increasing the likelihood of breakage or failure. Light freezing rain continued into Sunday, December 22nd until approximately 6:00 a.m. The total precipitation for Sunday was .26 inches. Temperatures throughout much of Sunday remained between 30 and 31 degrees. Average wind speeds on the 22nd were 7 mph with gusts up to 64 mph. Temperatures began to drop in the late evening hours of the 22nd and continued to fall through Monday the 23rd. By the end of the day on the 23rd, temperatures dropped to the upper teens. The estimated ice accumulation the Lansing area was approximately .5 inches. This amount of ice adds 100 to 200 pounds of weight to distribution lines, depending on the span length between poles. The BWL’s distribution system was designed and built to conform to the National Electric Safety Code’s (NESC) “heavy” designation. These standards specify construction to handle .5 inches of ice and with winds up to 40 mph. However as limbs and trees covered with ice fell onto distribution conductors, the added weight caused lines to break. The weather following the ice storm added to the restoration challenges. Temperatures remained well below freezing until December 28th and the ice accumulations did not melt. In the four days comprising December 23rd through December 26th, 1 ½ inches of snow fell adding to the weight of ice on branches and trees. As a result, branches continued to break and impact distribution lines for days after Sunday, December 22nd. For example, one primary circuit needed to be repaired three times as branches and trees continued to fall on the line days after the storm passed. This resulted in repeated outages for some customers. The effect of this type of ice and snow on electric distribution lines has been described by Dr. Keith C. Heidorn: “Hanging wire cables collect ice until the cable breaks or the rain stops. Diameters of these ice-coated cylindrical cables may reach five centimeters, adding a weight of 15 to 30 kilograms per meter (10-20 pounds per foot) to the wire. Lines not broken directly under the ice’s weight may succumb to the combined forces of ice and wind, or by trees and branches falling across them. Even days after the storm has abated, lines may break when they react to the sudden change in their load as the ice falls from them. Vibrations, often violent, may also occur as the ice falls, snapping weak points in the line under the added strain.”6
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The damage to trees and other vegetation alone required a massive debris removal operation that had to occur prior to or during line repair activity. The BWL had 15 tree trimming crews assisting line crews by removing trees and branches. Adding to the difficulty was the location of many lines in backyards which made access more difficult, especially with many fences encumbering access. D.	Impact of Ice Storm on BWL’s Service Territory and Electric Distribution System The ice storm had a devastating impact on the BWL’s electric distribution system. Approximately 40,000, or about 40%, of the BWL’s customers lost power. The combination of ice accumulation and wind gusts up to 64 mph tested the design limits of the BWL’s distribution infrastructure. This combination of ice and wind caused widespread destruction and damage to trees and other vegetation causing them to fall onto power lines. The falling limbs, trees, and other vegetation combined with the ice loading on distribution lines caused more than 2,400 lines to break. Since much of the Lansing area has overhead distribution lines and extensive tree cover, line failures were extensive and included primary voltage lines, secondary voltage lines, and individual services. More than 1,000 individual service line failures occurred and these individual services required intensive one-on-one attention from restoration crews. In fact, the BWL replaced approximately 5 miles of service wire during the ten day restoration period. This accounts for nearly half of the BWL’s typical annual replacement. To get a better perspective of the extent of damage and amount of repair work needed to restore services, Table 1 shows repair equipment used during the ten day storm restoration period compared to normal annual use:
Deadends Fuse Links Service Entrance Sleeves Splicing Sleeves Meter Sockets Automatic Splices General Wire Holders
Qty Issued during Ice Storm
2551 347 4,645 1,106 1,023 3,922 1,415
Total Annual Usage
1579 184 1,470 705 689 494 558
% Increase over Annual Usage
162% 189% 316% 157% 148% 794% 254%
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There are many other examples evidencing the volume of work required to repair damaged distribution infrastructure. For example, insulated service entrance sleeves (or insulinlk) are used to connect two types of wire together. For storm preparation, the BWL warehouse always stocks 100 of these. Typically, the BWL will use 850 of these insulinks annually for all work including storm restoration, maintenance and new construction. During this storm crews used 2,295 of these insulinks, or almost 3 times the annual use for this item. Another example is a wire holder that connects service wires to a home or building. The BWL warehouse policy is to always stock 50 of these in case of an outage emergency. In a normal year, the BWL uses about 540 of these for storm restoration, maintenance and new construction. During the ice storm crews used 1,337 of this particular wire holder. That is almost 2.5 times the amount of wire holders used in a normal year. The following photo provides insight into the type of damage created by the ice storm and the working conditions to which line crews were exposed.
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II.	STORM PRepARATIONs
The BWL’s outage restoration plan follows industry best practices and has proven to be effective in past storms. These best practices include storm preparations, utility response, and lessons learned. An effective outage restoration program begins with preparations well before a storm approaches. Preparations include: •	•	•	•	Having and following an effective restoration plan Monitoring weather for possible storm events Training personnel and securing resources to restore power Hardening transmission and distribution facilities against severe weather A.	Response Plans The BWL has an Emergency Action Plan (EAP) along with an Electric Transmission and Distribution Restoration Procedures and Order of Restoration Plan (distribution plan) and a Transmission Emergency Operations Plan (transmission plan). The transmission plan is required of all transmission operating utilities and is enforced by the National Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC). The transmission plan was developed in 2011 to comply with NERC requirements. The BWL EAP was updated in October 2013 and covers corporate response to a number of potential emergencies. The electric distribution plan was last formally updated in 2005, but a draft update was completed in December 2013, following lessons learned sessions conducted after the November 2013 wind storm. The components of that distribution plan are essentially the same components followed as best practices by utilities today and has been used successfully numerous times in the past. These plans detail the processes and procedures to follow in the event of various emergencies or restoration efforts, personnel responsibilities, storm response center staffing, the implementation of the incident management system, and communications with the Lansing Emergency Operations Center (EOC) among other things. Due to the BWL’s size, its operations center (BESOC) also serves as its electric storm operations center. The BWL does structure its storm response plan on the Incident Command System (ICS). The ICS is a widely adopted process for addressing any emergency, large or small, in any emergency field, fire, accident, earth quake, and other crisis. The BWL does not regularly test its electric distribution plan under conditions similar to the scope or conditions of the ice storm. Table top exercises designed to push the scale of a
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potential contingency are a regular part of the BWL’s Water Department’s planning activity and the electric transmission plan but have not been regularly undertaken for the electric distribution plan. However the occurrence of several electric distribution outages each year do keep all storm restoration personnel current with outage management plans. Table top exercises can help identify areas of an emergency plan that need attention and prepare staff for their roles during emergency conditions. Deficiencies or weak components of a plan can be identified, remedied, and the update plan disseminated to staff. Larger utilities frequently make use of triggers in their emergency plans. Triggers represent predetermined procedures and resource commitments designed to meet contingencies of various scope and type. For example, a normal storm might be level 1, while a storm with an impact similar to that of the ice storm might be a level 2 or 3. Once criteria are met and the level determined, staff knows how to proceed to meet the contingency. The BWL does not currently make use of triggers. The transmission and distribution plans cover a variety of non-storm as well as storm contingencies and the two plans have not created any difficulty to date. To avoid any potential future confusion over which plan is operative in an emergency, however, the BWL should consolidate these plans into one transmission and distribution emergency response plan. II.A.1.	BWL Response
1.	The BWL will include is distribution plan in its annual table top tests designed to stress its emergency response and will use the results to continually improve its emergency plans. 2.	The BWL will consider implementing a set of triggers into its distribution plan. 3.	The BWL will consolidate its transmission and its distribution emergency response plans into one document. B.	Monitor Weather Forecasts In order to prepare for possible damaging weather, the BWL subscribes to a private weather service, monitors National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) weather forecasts, and monitors other publicly available forecasts. Additionally, Lansing’s EOC sends weather alerts to the BWL and others if severe weather is forecast to reach the Lansing area. These forecasts are used by transmission and distribution (T&D) operations
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staff to continually monitor weather and identify possible events that could damage the T&D system. In addition, each Thursday morning, the T&D and generation staff meet with market operations and environmental staff to discuss any potential contingencies in the coming week. These meetings are used to alert each department of possible storm damage and adjust staffing levels to meet the contingency. Whenever a potentially damaging storm is forecast, BWL operating staff discusses the potential for storm damage, required resources if damage is possible, and logistical needs. In addition to six BWL crews, a minimum of six Michigan Municipal Electric Association (MMEA) crews and crews from a number of other utility and non-utility companies are available to be called for support. During the operations meeting on Thursday, December 19th, the impending ice storm was discussed and personnel alerted to the possible impact on Lansing. By Saturday, the BWL was prepared for storm restoration, but could not anticipate the scope of damage caused by the ice storm. II.B.1.	BWL Response
4.	The BWL will investigate the benefit of collaborating with other Michigan utilities to track and estimate the impact of inclement weather. C.	Training Personnel and Securing Resources It is a nearly universal practice among electric utilities to maintain sufficient line crews for normal operations and most storms. Utilities, however, do not employ crews to handle catastrophic storms because the additional crews would be idle most of the time. Instead, utilities enter mutual aid agreements with other utilities or private contractors when additional crews are needed for storm restoration. Prior to the ice storm, the BWL had mutual aid agreements with the MMEA and Consumers Energy. The BWL has subsequently entered into agreements with additional companies and utilities for mutual aid. 7 Many utilities assign employees not directly responsible for storm restoration to a secondary role in the restoration process. These roles include spotters, damage assessors, backup Customer Service Representatives for taking and recording outage information, community liaisons, and other functions. Secondary roles leverage existing staff during infrequent events that require mobilization of many times more personnel than normal operations. Like other utilities, the BWL also enlists the assistance of staff not normally assigned to storm related functions. For example, some BWL staff are trained to be spotters and safety
See Section III.B.1. for a list of new mutual aid agreements.
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personnel. Well trained spotters free up line personnel for other restoration services. These individuals receive annual training to secure line down sites or assess equipment damage for restoration planners. Three weeks prior to the ice storm, the BWL undertook its annual spotter training. II.C.1.	BWL Response 5.	Based on the BWL’s experience with the impact of the ice storm, the BWL will make use of additional secondary role employees and these roles will be discussed in subsequent sections. D.	System Hardening
The goal of storm hardening is to protect the transmission distribution infrastructure from the damaging effects of a storm. The BWL undertakes this goal through construction standards, system design, and vegetation management. The sectionalizing component of system design has already been discussed. Sectionalizing minimizes outage frequency and duration in most cases. The BWL’s distribution construction standards for ice and wind comply with the NESC designation for “heavy” with design criteria for ice accumulations of .5 inches and winds up to 40 mph. The heavy criterion is one of three criteria used to guide utility construction standards. The other two are light and medium. The heavy standard is the most robust construction standard and adhering to this standard is in keeping with industry best practices. Although the combination of ice and wind pushed the design limit of the distribution infrastructure, non-line equipment, like poles and cross arms sustained less damage than anticipated. Lines, likewise, performed to design standards. These lines only failed with the additional loading of ice laden branches and trees. The BWL also uses “hardening” material in vulnerable areas. For example, in some areas of its service territory, the BWL uses “Hendrix” wire to reinforce lines so as to make them more resistant to failure. Hendrix wire is especially helpful in areas exposed to thick tree canopies. Another “hardening” construction option is to bury or “underground” lines and services. The BWL received numerous suggestions to bury the distribution system during the Community Forum meetings of January 15th, 16th, and 17th. Undergrounding existing lines and services is a tradeoff between reliability, reducing the chance of outages during events like the ice storm, and the financial cost of undergrounding lines. It costs about $1,000,000 more per mile to underground services rather than using standard overhead lines. Cost estimates of undergrounding the Michigan system is in the tens of billions of dollars. The BWL has not
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prepared a formal estimate of undergrounding its system, but an estimate of at least $500 million, based on the BWL’s system and incremental cost of undergrounding, would seem reasonable. The BWL does require underground services for all new construction, but the cost of retrofitting its system is prohibitive. However, the BWL is willing to place a customer’s overhead service underground for those customers willing to pay the cost of doing so. It should also be kept in mind that undergrounding services have other disadvantages. First, contractors or home owners digging in a yard frequently hit lines, including electric lines. This can occur even when Miss Dig has been called prior to digging. Second, although an underground system is less likely to experience an outage than an overhead system, outages that do occur on an underground system usually take longer to repair. When a fault does occur, linemen are able to walk along an overhead line and readily ascertain where the fault has occurred. In an underground system, it is much more difficult to locate and repair a fault, thus increasing the time and cost required to make the same repairs. Most damage incurred during the ice storm resulted from falling branches and trees. The BWL has developed and maintains a vegetation management program that is designed to protect its distribution system. Most of the damage done to distribution circuits and customer services during the ice storm resulted from falling branches and trees. Vegetation management, keeping trees and branches from power lines, is an important part of maintaining distribution reliability during inclement weather and in protecting the public from downed power lines. The goal of tree trimming is to create a large enough clear area around power lines to protect them from contact with vegetation until the next trimming cycle while still maintaining healthy and attractive vegetation growth. Vegetation management must also create enough clear space around utility poles and lines to allow access by line crews. When vegetation contacts a power line, it either causes the line to break or creates a fault that triggers a disruption in service or results in customer outages. The BWL’s vegetation management policy adopts minimum trimming distances that depend on the type of conductors used and the span between poles. This policy also adopts a minimum vertical and horizontal distance and requires trimming techniques that are suitable for various types of vegetation. This policy is consistent with standards developed by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), specifically ANSI 300 and ANSI 133.1, and was updated in June 2013. The BWL’s policy is to create a buffer around its power lines to protect the lines from the movement of branches due to wind. It is not designed to protect the lines from falling branches located in the tree canopy above the power line, a situation common with higher and more mature trees, unless these trees are dead or have dead branches and pose a danger to the power line.
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The BWL’s vegetation management program is planned and directed by the BWL’s forester. The BWL’s policy is to perform clearance along its overhead lines on a 5-7 year cycle although some lines may be trimmed more frequently if circumstances require more aggressive trimming. This policy means that each circuit is inspected and cleared each 5-7 years depending on the type of line and the type and density of vegetation around each circuit. Trimming is undertaken by crews that specialize in this service. The BWL normally contracts with outside vendors to have four crews performing vegetation management in addition to one of its own crews. Recently, the BWL has temporarily increased its contract tree trimming crews to eighteen in order to clear storm debris and trim trees along trouble circuits. The BWL requires its contract crews to follow industry accepted practices to protect the health of trees that are trimmed along right of way or easements. Occasionally, the BWL will request permission from a homeowner to remove a dead or diseased tree outside a right of way or easement if the tree poses a danger of falling onto a power line. Like other utilities, the BWL also uses an herbicide that is not harmful to humans or animals to control shrubs and shorter trees, less than 10 feet in height, in its right of way and easements. However, it does not use an herbicide on private property without the consent of the owner. The Lansing area has experienced widespread destruction of ash trees due to the emerald ash borer. Mature ash trees can grow to 65 feet in height with a width of 40 feet. Falling branches and entire ash trees from outside right of ways and easements can cause power lines to break and even cause pole or cross arm failures. The BWL’s vegetation management expenditures are shown below: Year	Expenditures 2009	$1,001,248 2010	$841,374 2011	$1,001,493 2012	$1,334,417 2013	$2,199,242 During the Community Forum meetings, a number of commenters criticized the tree trimming performed by Wright Tree service and the BWL’s overall vegetation management program.
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II.D.1.	BWL Response 6.	Most utilities have not found placing overhead lines underground to be cost effective. Instead, reviewing maintenance practices and construction standards seems to be a more reasonable method for improving the resiliency of the BWL’s distribution system. However, for those customers who want and are willing to pay for undergrounding existing services, the BWL will provide that service. 7.	The BWL will strictly adhere to a 5 year trimming cycle and is in the process of modifying its tree trimming standards and procedures to remove all branches located above distribution lines to better protect its lines during a major storm. 8.	The BWL will begin to use multiple tree trimming contractors to assign work to the contractor based on past performance. The contractor with the best record of performance will get a larger portion of the work. Recently, the BWL has temporarily increased the number of tree trimming crews under contract to eighteen. 9.	The BWL will publish the contact information for its supervisor responsible for trimming scheduling so customers can contact the supervisor directly with questions or complaints regarding tree trimming procedures and workmanship.
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III.	OUTAGE RESTORATION The BWL’s restoration plan closely follows industry best practices. Responding to devastating ice storms requires several simultaneous and co-dependent operations. Crews need to be mobilized, trained spotters need to be deployed, restoration planners need to have reliable information on the state of the system, logistics need to be in place to support the effort, and the restoration progress must be communicated to customers, public officials, and the media. These operations must all commence prior to staff knowing the scope, severity, and type of damage created by the storm. A.	Damage Assessment and Spotter Crews
To efficiently and safely restore power after a storm has passed, crews must be dispatched to the proper location with the right material, supplies, and skill level to repair the distribution infrastructure. This begins with restoration planners knowing the scope, location, and type of damage the distribution system has sustained. With this knowledge and restoration priority policy, planners can dispatch crews efficiently to restore as many customers as possible as quickly as possible while maintaining public safety. This function of a restoration plan is referred to as the damage assessment phase and begins immediately after a storm has passed and it is safe to dispatch assessment crews into the field. For severe storms, like the ice storm, the damage assessment may continue for several days after the storm has passed. It is undertaken simultaneously with the actual restoration. Damage intelligence for restoration planners comes from the Outage Management System (OMS) as well as from damage assessors in the field who confirm the damage predicted by the OMS while also identifying its actual location and determining the type of damage. Planners use this information to decide which crews are dispatched to which outage locations. For example, the OMS may predict an outage on a segment of primary line. Damage assessment crews will then confirm the outage, determine where it occurred on the line segment, and ascertain the nature of the damage which could be a pole down, cross arm down, blown fuse, line down, or other problems. Damage assessors may be line crew members, spotters, or other trained personnel. Spotters are critical to the damage assessment phase. While line crew personnel can be used for spotter activity, it is common for non-line personnel familiar with a utility’s distribution equipment, typology, and construction methods to fill some, or this entire role, in the event of a severe storm. This frees up line workers to concentrate on repairs. The BWL follows this practice and has trained employees who are not members of a line crew to fill the spotter role. These employees are engineers, designers, and electrical service workers.
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To keep its spotters up to date on the BWL’s distribution practices and technology, the BWL conducts annual training sessions. The most recent annual training session occurred three weeks prior to the ice storm. Spotters also perform an important public safety function by safeguarding down power lines to protect the public. Spotters both identify lines down and either guard energized lines until a line crew can make the line safe or mark them with tape to warn the public. Spotters also identify and tag foreign wires like cable or communications wire to prevent repeated wire down calls. During the ice storm there were a record number of down lines causing the spotters to spend a great deal of time securing as many downed line sites as possible. This meant that damage assessment fell to line crews, who were tasked with both damage assessment and repair. Having sufficient, well trained spotters who can also perform damage assessments is necessary for efficient restoration following a devastating storm. Without the work of spotters, line crews may be sent to the wrong location, have the wrong material, may be idle awaiting directions, or spend time performing damage assessments. The BWL deployed twenty three spotter crews during the ice storm and they required nine days for the crews to complete their work. Spotters were required throughout this period because branches and trees continued to fall and break lines throughout the restoration period. While the BWL has maintained sufficient spotter crews for previous storms, the scope of the ice storm meant line crews had to spend time on damage assessment and spotter crews were challenged to both secure down wires and provide damage assessments. The importance of damage assessment cannot be overstated. In their paper “Best Practices for Storm Response on U.S. Distribution Systems,” the authors state: “Damage assessment is effectively a bottleneck in the storm restoration process. Since crews will not typically be dispatched until assessment results are analyzed, foreign and local crews are idle while waiting for their assignments.”8 Although spotters and damage assessors are trained annually, not all use the same forms and methods for reporting damaged equipment. This can lead to confusion or the need for follow-up questions from restoration planners or line crews. Common forms and methods for reporting damaged equipment would make the planning process more efficient.
Best Practices For Storm Response On U.S. Distribution Systems, Lavelle A. Freeman, Gregory J. Stano, Martin E. Gordon, March 23, 2010.
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Customers calling in down lines sometimes confused BWL power lines with communications or cable company lines. This diverted spotter crews who were responding to a record number of BWL downed power lines. When spotters locate a down power line and are unable to remain with the line, they mark it with a red and white tape. They mark down communications or cable lines with orange tape. The BWL is responsible for down power lines, while the cable or communications companies are responsible for down cable and communications lines. Customers should direct calls regarding down communications or cable lines to the cable or communications companies. The BWL relies on damage assessment once the storm has impacted the service territory in order to determine the number of crews and type of material needed for restoration. While this practice is universal among electric distribution utilities, some utilities also attempt to predict or estimate the storm damage prior to the arrival or during the storm. Larger utilities in areas that frequently experience severe weather may use computer programs to estimate the damage, while others simply use matrices based on the type of storm and historical damage information. Although, the damage assessments undertaken by field crews is necessary and indispensable, the use of predictive tools may help determine if additional outside crews may be necessary prior to the storm’s arrival. III.A.1.	BWL Response
10.	The BWL is in the process of carefully reviewing spotter duty during the ice storm and determining how many additional trained spotters would be needed to efficiently secure down lines and provide timely damage assessment during an event with the destructive impact of the ice storm. Based on this analysis, the BWL will survey its staff for additional personnel who would be suitable for spotter duty and train personnel for both spotter and damage assessment duty. 11.	The BWL will also utilize retired line workers to perform damage assessments and serve as spotters. 12.	The BWL will consider contracting with electric service firms for damage assessment services to supplement its own staff. 13.	The BWL is developing common reporting forms and methods to be used by all spotters and damage assessors and will stress the importance of adhering to these during the annual training sessions.
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14.	The BWL will evaluate the use of damage predictive tools to determine if these tools could help in assessing possible damage earlier in a storm’s approach. 15.	The BWL will remind customers that lines marked with red and white tape are power lines and the tape indicates that the BWL is aware that the line is down. The BWL will publish this information on its website and Customer Connections newsletter. B.	Crew Deployment
For previous storm damage, the BWL has been able to restore power to customers quickly using its own crews. For catastrophic storms, however, the BWL has entered into mutual aid agreements with other utilities and secured contracts with private service companies for additional crews. This is a near universal practice in the electric utility industry. It would be cost prohibitive to maintain crews for a catastrophic storm that might only occur at 40 or 50 year intervals. Instead, sharing crews is more logical as a storm is not likely to have the same severe and devastating impact on all utilities simultaneously. Prior to the ice storm, the BWL had mutual aid agreements with MMEA and Consumers Energy. The BWL typically has a crew on call 24/7 in the event of a power outage somewhere on the system. On the evening of December 21st, the BWL increased that to three crews. By Sunday morning, December 22nd, all available BWL crews were activated in addition to spotter crews. At 8:00 a.m. on Sunday morning, the BWL began contacting MMEA mutual aid cities for additional crews. Six crews arrived or were in transit on Sunday. BWL crews were initially used for “cut and run”—that is securing or tying-off power lines, for damage assessments, and as “bird dogs” for mutual aid crews. Bird dogs are assigned to accompany crews from other utilities or outside contractors, particularly for work on the primary distribution system. The use of bird dogs is necessary because outside crews do not know the BWL system, primary prints, or even streets and other locations. The number of qualified BWL bird dogs limits the number of crews that can be safely and efficiently managed during the initial phase of the restoration process. The use of bird dogs is a standard industry practice, an important safety measure, and an integral part of best practices for storm restoration. Electric line worker jobs are among the top ten most hazardous jobs in the United States. To protect line workers unfamiliar with the BWL’s distribution technology, design, and construction methods, the BWL’s safety procedures require outside crews working on high voltage primary distribution infrastructure to be accompanied by a bird dog. Bird dogs are not required for repairs to secondary voltage lines, laterals, and individual services.
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After the damage assessment provided a scope of damage to the BWL’s system, the BWL determined that it would need additional outside crews. Four additional MMEA mutual aid crews arrived Friday, December 27th. On Sunday the 29th twelve additional crews arrived. Figure 3 below shows crew status by day during the restoration period.
During the Community Forums, a number of commenters suggested that the BWL did not secure enough line crews and, thereby, increased the duration of the outages. This was not the case. With the need to allocate personnel to perform damage assessments, to serve as bird dogs, to make safe downed power lines, and manage crews while switching circuits on and off, the BWL had the optimal complement of crews on site at the right time. More line crews earlier would have resulted in crews being idle or the safety of those crews being compromised until damage assessments were conducted or bird dogs became available. More crews were used later in the restoration effort after primary lines were repaired and made safe and outside crews could concentrate on laterals, secondary voltages, and individual services without the need for BWL bird dogs.
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Standard industry practice is to perform damage assessments to assist planners in managing the restoration process, make secure live wires, and use “bird dogs” to assist outside crews, all of which limit the number of outside crews that can be safely and efficiently used in restoration. More trained spotters to do damage assessments and trained bird dogs to assist outside crews would free up BWL crews to repair higher voltage lines sooner. III.B.1.	BWL Response
16.	The BWL has expanded the number of utilities and non-utility electric service contractors with which it has mutual aid agreements or service contracts. The list is shown below. Existing Agreements •	•	Michigan Municipal Electric Association (35 Municipal Utilities) Consumers Energy
New Agreements •	•	•	•	•	American Public Power Association Asplundh Kent Power Hydaker-Wheatlake FEMA Mutual Aid (Upon a Declaration of a State of Emergency)
Pending Agreements •	DTE Energy (Under Negotiations)
These agreements both increase the number of potential crew sources and provide geographical diversity as well. For example the APPA agreement would enable the BWL to bring crews in from a number of different states. In the event of a declaration of emergency, the FEMA agreement would allow the BWL to bring in crews from nearly anywhere in the United States. 17.	The BWL is in the process of hiring three additional line workers and an additional dispatcher to supplement its workforce and to help manage crews during the restoration process.
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18.	With the addition of three line workers, an additional dispatcher, more trained spotters, and the new mutual aid agreements, the BWL has tripled the number of line crews that are available for immediate deployment and can be used safely and efficiently during a major outage event. C.	Restoration Priorities and Timing
The BWL follows industry best practices and storm response plans that are followed by most utilities in the United States to establish restoration priorities. The BWL’s plan prioritizes restoration based on public safety, criticality, and restoring power to the largest number of customers as quickly as possible. The order of priority is as follows: Public Safety Clear and make safe all downed power lines Energize communications centers Hospitals and urgent care facilities Police and Fire Water pumping facilities Wastewater treatment plants and pumping stations
First Priority	Then, restore service to the largest number of customers as quickly as possible: First	Restore and trim primary circuits and customers Restore and replace blown fuses and transformers Restore and replace secondary lines Restore and trim services
Second	Third	Trim threatened wires Fourth Respond to partial power or power quality calls Non-critical trimming and cleaning Once public safety priorities are met, the BWL’s plan calls for restoring power to the largest number of customers as quickly as possible. That means that primary voltages serving larger numbers of customers, lateral lines, and large customers are restored first. Restoring one primary outage may bring 1,000 or more customers back into service, whereas repairing a secondary lateral may only bring a few hundreds back, and repairing a secondary transformer may only bring a few dozen into service. Individual services take the longest time, since one crew is needed for each customer. Figure 4 provides a visual representation of this plan. Page x 37
Simplified Distribution Circuit
Primary circuits carry power at higher voltages from substations to various points along the circuit and may serve a number of lateral circuits or large customers. Lateral circuits move the power from the primary lines to transformers, which serve individual customers. During the Community Forums meetings, several speakers questioned why power was restored to near-by residences, but not their residence. Once damage assessments are complete, priorities are established based on the highest number of customers to be restored in the least amount of time. If multiple primary circuits have opened (tripped offline) due to damaged equipment or severed wires, each downed circuit is ranked from highest to least amount of customers connected. The circuit that has the highest number of customers connected receives the highest priority until all circuits have been restored. If a lateral circuit connected to a primary circuit is also damaged, it is cut and cleared (disconnected to the primary circuit) until primary circuits are restored first. This phase of the restoration process may seem illogical to customers since the primary wires are restored and some customers may have power while others, on the damaged lateral, do not. Customers remaining without power observe crew leave without fully restoring the lateral circuits, or individual services. Keep in mind that it may take a crew the same amount of time to repair one individual service connection as it does to repair a primary circuit, which would restore power to hundreds or thousands of residences. 38 x Page
The priority strategy followed throughout the BWL results in large numbers of customers being returned to service early in a major outage and fewer numbers of customers taking longer to restore power. Frequently, it takes as much time to restore power to the last 5-10% as it does the first 90-95% of customers. Figure 5 shows the geographic dispersion of outages on the BWL system. Areas shown in red depict primary circuit outages. Consistent with BWL’s restoration priority, these were the first to have service restored. Areas in yellow were secondary voltage lines, laterals, and individual services that were out of service. These were restored after the primary circuits were restored. This process brought 90% of customers back into service in four days.
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The BWL’s ice storm service restoration fits the national experience. Figure 6 shows restoration curves for a major summer storm that affected states in the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic area. The figure also shows the BWL’s ice storm restoration curve. The curve shows the percentage of customers who were out of service that are returned each day of the restoration effort. The BWL’s restoration curve fits the national experience even though the BWL’s storm was a winter storm.
This represents a common restoration experience for storms creating damage of this magnitude in the United States. III.C.1.	BWL Response
19.	The BWL does update its critical and public safety lists periodically to ensure that it is up to date and complete. The BWL will share its overall restoration plans with local public officials so that they can be kept up to date on the BWL’s restoration plans. If another catastrophic storm does occur, local officials will be better able to respond to citizen inquiries regarding the restoration progress.
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D.	Logistic Operations
Logistics, having the right material and supplies in the right place at the right time, is an important element of storm preparation. The Purchasing and Warehousing Department (PWD) maintains a list of critical items that are stocked in the warehouse at all times in case of a storm outage. These items and their respective storm quantities were identified and approved by the Electric Transmission and Distribution (T&D) Department. On Friday, December 20th in anticipation of the storm, BWL Purchasing personnel reviewed the storm list and ensured that the required inventory quantities for the storm items were sufficient to cover the amounts required for a typical storm outage response. The review indicated that quantity on hand (QOH) on December 20th for each storm item was sufficient to cover the required amount on the storm list. In addition to maintaining its own inventory for items needed in a typical response to an electric T&D outage, the BWL’s main electric line hardware supplier, Power Line Supply, maintains large quantities of the various line hardware items in its Reed City, MI warehouse. This provides an effective secondary source of materials should the BWL exhaust its inventory. On Sunday, December 22nd around 7:00 a.m., the BWL opened its warehouse so crews could acquire whatever materials they needed for their work. Warehouse staff quickly determined that the warehouse should operate on a 24-hour basis to support the restoration effort. This would ensure that materials would be accessible and readily available whenever needed by the crews. This operation continued until Thursday, January 2nd. To assure that line crews had the materials and supplies they needed when they needed it, PWD employees’ processed new material orders that were received every day and often times at odd hours, issued materials to crews at all hours of the day and night, and constantly checked inventory levels to ensure our system provided an accurate accounting of stock on-hand. The Warehouse staff also developed a streamlined process for distributing materials so our crews did not have to complete the standard paperwork when obtaining items. Instead the warehouse staff recorded and tracked materials removed from our inventory. This enabled line crews to get the necessary materials and return to the field as quickly as possible. BWL’s PWD maintains a list of critical storm repair items and keeps specific quantities of each item in stock at all times in case of a storm emergency. These storm quantities have been adequate for past outages, however, this ice storm was so devastating that PWD not only ran through our stock dedicated for storm restoration, but also through our normal inventory. Page x 41
To stay one step ahead of the material needs, at least one Purchasing employee worked each day of the outage (including holidays) corresponding with Power Line Supply, the BWL’s main hardware supplier and Champion Charter Sales & Services, our main fuse material supplier, to find and expedite material and supply requests. The line crews played an important part in maintaining sufficient inventory to support the restoration program by advising warehouse staff of which materials they were running low on and providing estimates of the quantity of material that they anticipated needing. III.D.1.	BWL Response
20.	The BWL will review its storm inventory based on recent experience. E.	Internal Communications
Best practice utilities rely on internal communications to coordinate storm response activity. The BWL operations staff conducted internal storm restoration updates three times a day through the duration of the storm. Participants included the Line department, Warehouse staff, Operations center staff, System Integrity personnel, Safety department, and Communications staff. The agenda for the updates included the following: •	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	Safety issues Number of customer outages Outage restoration time estimate Wire down restoration update Storm assessment information Crew requirements Spotter requirements Material, supplies, and equipment issues Supplemental resources Contractor or outside electrician issues Mutual assistance requests Work management Next day assignments and schedules
The BWL operations center at BESOC communicates with field crews by use of radio and cell phone. BWL line trucks are also outfitted with laptop computers to provide access to the BWL’s Geographical Information System (GIS). The laptops are not yet connected to the BWL’s OMS system.
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III.E.1.	BWL Response
21.	The BWL’s internal communications worked effectively. The BWL will investigate connecting its line truck laptops to its OMS system as a tool to assist crews with storm responses. F.	Outage Assessment Technology
Most electric utilities today make use of an Outage Management System (OMS) to help manage a restoration process and provide information to customers and local officials. The BWL’s OMS combines information from its Customer Information Systems (CIS) and GIS. The GIS system has a detailed map of the BWL’s distribution system and the CIS provides the OMS with the location of specific customer outages from customer outage calls, email notifications, social media, SeeClickFix, or other electronic means. By combining information from these systems, the OMS creates a model of the utility’s outages. This information provides important information that assists planners with directing restoration crews. When crews are dispatched to locations based on the OMS modeling, they can confirm the OMS outage predictions and provide the dispatcher more accurate outage information regarding the nature of the outage, and an expected restoration time. Once the expected restoration time is recorded by the dispatcher, it can be entered into the OMS. The OMS is a powerful outage tool that allows constant updates as circuit switching occurs, equipment outages or repairs take place, and downed wires are repaired over the course of a restoration effort. In so doing, it provides a dynamic model of the utility’s distribution system and outage locations. It is also useful in keeping Customer Service Representatives informed of outages so that they can answer questions from customers and keep them apprised of their outage status or estimated restoration time directly from web based systems, call-in numbers, or other means. The BWL’s current OMS became operational in February 2013. As the BWL’s operations staff began to use the new OMS, they encountered several issues requiring patches or documentation. Patches are programming or other coding and configuration changes to software to address a weakness, problem, or enhance the capability of software. Documentation serves to explain a software use or structure, to ensure a patch has been tested successfully and will work as intended and to explain the steps necessary to install or implement the patch.
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One issue encountered was the loss of conductor cut functionality. The conductor cut function is used to indicate where a circuit or wire is down or not functioning. A properly functioning conductor cut routine is necessary to distinguish between those customers who still have service and those who are out of service. Although this function worked properly when the OMS was first implemented, in May the BWL discovered that it was non-functioning. The BWL is uncertain as to the cause of the loss, but promptly requested a fix from the vendor. The conductor cut patch was one of several that the vendor delivered as a fix in October. Prior to use in a full production, or operational model, patches must be tested in a development model. A development model is a copy of the actual production model that allows testing patches without exposing the actual production model to unintended effects of an untested patch. Most of the patches were tested successfully in October, including the conductor cut functionality. Prior to integration into the BWL’s full operating OMS, however, the patches were awaiting documentation and the assistance from the vendor in moving them to the production model when the ice storm occured. Without documentation demonstrating and ensuring proper use and functionality of the patches and without the assistance of the vendor in moving it to the production model, the conductor cut application was not functional. Instead, the staff created a spreadsheet to plan and track outages and plan restoration. As a result, without having the OMS available to model the outage, the BWL could not estimate restoration times or confirm outages for individual customers. On December 28th, the conductor cut function was made operational in the BWL’s production model. Because the OMS conductor cut application was not fully functional and because not all outages were entered into the OMS (see 877 discussion infra), when it did become functional some outages appeared in the OMS as already restored while these customers were still without power. At the same time, other customers whose outage was recorded in the OMS but who did have power restored still appeared in the OMS to be out of service. To correct for these discrepancies, the BWL dropped all outages in the OMS. So when customers who had called in an outage earlier called again to check on the status of their outage, the BWL did not recognize the customer as being out of service. This caused confusion and anger among customers. Although the conductor cut was awaiting a patch when the storm occured, this was a critical component of the OMS needed to convey outage information to the BWL Call Center and customers. The BWL should have been more diligent in assuring this issue was resolved sooner. 44 x Page
The BWL and all electric utilities faced with catastrophic storms require damage assessment teams to visually survey the location, type, and scope of damage before line crew assignments can be made. While an operating OMS would have avoided much of the confusion regarding customer outages, it would not have reduced restoration times. Recommendations to reduce the restoration time are included in Section III.A. and III.B. Smart grid technology, including the use of smart meters, can serve many roles in utility planning and operations. Among other things, these technologies can control voltages on distribution circuits, automatically perform circuit switching when faults or overloads occur, and they can detect individual customer outages. The BWL is currently undertaking a combined voltage control and smart meter project that will both allow it greater voltage control on circuits and to identify individual customer outages when they occur. These outages can then be entered automatically into the OMS. Some customers at other utilities who have deployed smart meters have objected to their use. These customers are concerned that the meters will be a privacy intrusion or that their health may be adversely effected by electromagnetic fields created by the smart meters. The BWL is sensitive to these concerns, but is unaware of reliable studies demonstrating a link between smart meters and health. These advanced technologies are being encouraged by the U.S. government, by many state governments, and being deployed by utilities throughout the United States. The BWL is moving forward with its projects, but will be developing a policy to allow customers to “opt out” of smart meter use. III.G.1.	BWL Response
22.	The BWL has resolved the matters related to the OMS functionality. The conductor cuts are now operational and the OMS performs to design standards. 23.	To avoid this situation with other outage tools that may be employed in the future, the BWL will conduct periodic stress tests of all its restoration tools including, but not limited to the OMS, outage call in number, Customer Service Center, and Communications plans. 24.	The BWL is moving forward with a project to implement smart grid and smart meter technology, which will allow it to identify individual customer outages. It will also develop a policy that will allow customers to “opt out” of smart meter use.
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G.	Lessons Learned Consistent with utility best practices, after each storm event, the BWL conducts one or more lessons learned sessions. After the restoration has been completed, the Director of Electric Transmission and Distribution conducts review sessions with all teams involved in the storm response. The BWL uses the lessons to modify its storm response plan, to train employees, improve internal and external communications, and reevaluate its resource needs. The ice storm has resulted in numerous recommendations. Many of the recommendations have already been implemented, while others will require additional time to implement. A summary of these is included in Section VII.
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IV. CUsTOMeR COMMUNICATIONs During a major storm, customer communications must perform several functions. These include acknowledging customer outages or downed line reports, communicating the BWL’s determination to restore power as quickly as possible and providing customers with a reasonable estimate of the restoration time or informing the customer that he or she may call at a later time for an estimated restoration time. It musts also communicate a consistent message regarding the overall restoration progress to customers, local officials, media, and internal BWL staff. Customers have five methods of communicating outage and line down information to the BWL: phone, email, Facebook, Twitter, and SeeClickFix. The most widely used method by far is the phone. Most utilities in the United States allow customers to provide outage and downed line information by either speaking directly to a customer service representative or through an automated answering process, known as an Integrated Voice Response (IVR) system. The BWL uses both these methods for customers who contact the BWL by phone. A.	BWL Call Center
The purpose of the BWL’s Call Center is to process calls related to service requests, billing issues, and other customer care issues. The Call Center is accessed through the BWL’s local number, 702-6006 (6006), and is staffed by Customer Service Representative (CSR). It is normally open from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. The Call Center can handle 23 calls simultaneously, with the capacity to “queue” another 43 calls until a CSR is available to take the call. The Call Center was not intended to handle the large volume of calls that accompany a major storm. For that purpose, the BWL contracts with Twenty-first Century Call Center (TFCC), that hosts a toll free 877-295-5001 (877) number for the BWL. In 2004, the BWL upgraded its phone system to a digital system. This allowed the BWL to gather call data information like number and duration of calls, timing of calls, CSR call process time, and other information. This data was used in a 2009 phone system upgrade to improve service, system functionality, and responsiveness. The current Call Center size and configuration was designed around this historical experience, including data collected over the years. Prior to the ice storm, the Call Center had worked well under normal conditions and during previous storms. After normal business hours, calls to the Call Center are handled by an IVR that forwards outage calls to TFCC. Power line down calls go through TFCC to BESOC, where one operator takes calls. If the operator is busy, the call goes to voicemail. For the ice storm that began on Saturday, December 21st, this process had been followed and was initially working as expected. Page x 47
If the BESOC operator becomes overwhelmed with line down or outage call volume being forwarded from the local IVR, the operator contacts the Call Center supervisor directly and requests that the Call Center be reopened to assist with handling calls. This occurred at approximately 10:00 p.m. on Saturday, December 21st. The BESOC operator then contacted the Call Center supervisor at approximately 10:05 p.m., and the Call Center supervisor then contacted two CSRs. All arrived and began processing phone calls by 10:30 pm. The Call Center in combination with the 877 number have been through numerous previous storms and performed well, meeting or exceeding its design standards. The historically high call volumes of the ice storm were unprecedented and overwhelmed the BWL’s Call Center, which was designed to handle customer care issues, not outage calls. Call volume was so large that CSRs could not take all calls. Once the highest limit of 3000 calls per hour was reached, the system was not able to forward, drop or handle calls fast enough so many customers received a busy signal. Customers that did make it through to the Call Center, experienced long wait times in order to talk with a CSR. Figure 7 shows the calls received by the BWL’s local 6006 number compared to calls received during earlier storms and normal call volume.
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An additional problem encountered was the loss of power to the Haco campus in the first day of the storm. Though the power to the phones stayed on, several CSR’s lost power to their PCs. This was remedied the next day when power was restored to the Haco campus. Contributing to the overload on the local phone system and long delays and busy signals was the publication of both numbers, 6006 and 877, early in the restoration for reporting outages. Outages should be reported to 877 while line down should be reported to 6006. The local number is not designed to handle the volume of outage reports received during the restoration. The BWL does not call forward the local 6006 number to send all calls to TFCC at 877, but would have reduced the huge volume of outage calls to the CSRs who could have focused on line down and voice mail calls. The BWL Call Center did respond quickly after notification from BESOC regarding call volume. Call Center staff were on duty within one half hour and kept the Call Center open for extended hours throughout the outage, including 24 hour operation from December 21st through the 23rd. The BWL also used about 28 employees who normally work elsewhere in the BWL to fill secondary roles helping to answer phones, emails, and manually keep track of outages. IV.A.1.	BWL Response
25.	The BWL is hiring additional call center staff. 26.	The BWL has implemented a process to assure call forward to the 877 number occurs during large outages. This will allow CSR and supporting staff to concentrate on line down, voice mail and other communications mediums. 27.	The BWL will trigger the IVR in the 877 system to direct non-matched callers to voicemail during major outage events. 28.	The BWL has reconfigured the Call Center to send messages in the voice mailbox to CSR’s automatically. 29.	The BWL is aggressively advertising the 877 number for outages including all available communications mediums, like magnets, social media, BWL Website, and other customer communications.
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30.	During a major outage, the BWL Call Center staff will focus their efforts on responding to email, texts, Facebook, Nixle, Twitter, and voicemails left on the outage reporting system with the goal of responding to storm related inquiries in a timely fashion. The BWL has expanded the number of employees in secondary storm roles to assist with these customer service functions. 31.	The BWL will ensure that the distribution plan weather forecasting and storm preparation function include employees who are directly or indirectly, through secondary roles, responsible for customer service. This, along with other changes, will assure that the BWL can respond to customer inquiries promptly. B.	Twenty-First Century Call Center BWL utilizes a 3rd party hosted phone company, Twenty-First Century Call Center (TFCC), for automated customer outage reporting, which in turn records and reports the outage and location into the BWL OMS. This line can be reached by utilizing prompts through our local line or by calling the 877 number. The practice of utilizing an automated system for outage reporting is used extensively in the utility industry for allowing customers to report an outage or other emergency after a storm of after normal business hours. TFCC handles outage calls for many large utilities (Attachment D). The system established by the BWL through TFCC is capable of handling up to 40,000 calls per hour and easily handled all previous storms as well as the record-setting ice storm. Typical call volume compared to the ice storm call volume can be seen in Figure 8. The peak hour of calls during the ice storm occurred on December 22nd between 8:30 and 9:30 a.m. and was less than 4,000 calls and the peak day was slightly less than 31,000.
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The TFCC IVR system is very sophisticated, with a goal of automatically handling as many customers as possible. In addition to handling outage reporting calls, it also provides the following features: •	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	If the “matched” caller is a “repeat” caller, notifying them that their outage has already been reported. If the “matched” caller’s service has already been restored, letting them know along with the time it was restored. Notifying the caller of an Estimated Time of Restoration (ETR) if one is available. Allowing for caller id, phone number manual entry and phone number voice recognition. Multiple chances to enter a phone number (for the customer that has more than one phone). Identifying the proper service if the phone number is linked to more than one address. Playing a message to all callers at the beginning of a message. Calling customers back to let them know when their power has been restored. Triggering a new outage report if the BWL shows the power as having been restored but the customer calls back to report another outage.
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Customers can use the 877 number to report power outages or line downs. They can also get to this by calling the BWL’s billing number (6006) and pressing option 1 to report a power outage or 2 to report a line down. Many customers bypass all of these options in the event of an outage in order to talk to a live customer service representative. In the cases of a CSR, the CSR will enter the outage into the OMS system for the customer. If the caller to the 877 number is calling to report a power line down, the TFCC IVR routes the call to the BWL local number so that a BWL employee can talk to the customer. If the caller is calling to report a power outage, the TFCC system first tries to identify the service address by using the caller id of the phone. TFCC keeps a “shadow” database of BWL customer phone numbers, services and other information. If the caller id matches one of the phone numbers on the shadow database, TFCC sends the service information to the BWL to be automatically entered into the OMS and the caller is told that their outage has been recorded. If the caller id does not match to the shadow database, the customer is prompted to enter another phone number and this new number is then used to try to match to the shadow database. Again, if a match is found, the service outage information is sent to the BWL’s OMS and the caller is told that their outage has been recorded. During the ice storm over 10,000 callers were “matched” to a service address, but about 26,800 were not, although many of the 26,800 were repeat callers. The causes of un-matched callers include, for example, customer phone number changes, the use of cell phones instead of traditional “land lines”, and customers moving. If, after multiple efforts, the phone number is not found, the call is routed to the BWL. If the Customer Service Center is staffed (e.g. during normal business hours or during severe outage), the call is routed to the Customer Service Center. If the Customer Service Center is closed, the call is routed to the BESOC Operator on duty. If the BWL cannot answer the phone because all staff/lines are busy at both the Call and Operations Centers, TFCC automatically reroutes the call back to the TFCC voice mailbox. The voice mail prompts the customer for detailed information. During the ice storm, the calls routed by the TFCC IVR to the BWL came so quickly that BWL lines were overwhelmed and staff was unable to respond to many calls. The calls were then routed back to the TFCC voicemail. The volume of calls transferred to the voice mailbox during the early morning hours of the 22nd was so large, that the voice mailbox reached its limit of 1,500 messages at approximately 6:00 a.m. This was the first time the voice mailbox had ever reached its limit and caused customers to get a “voice mailbox full” message. So many calls were being answered by CSR’s that the voice mailbox was not fully emptied until December 27th. 52 x Page
The TFCC 877 number has performed well for the BWL during all previous storms. During the ice storm, the system operated as designed and did not drop any calls or display a busy signal to any caller. Unmatched calls, line down calls, and customers wanting to talk to a CSR were redirected from TFCC to the Call Center where they overwhelmed the system’s capacity. In addition, a major problem arose between the 877 IVR and the BWL’s OMS on Saturday the 21st when the IVR call processor on the OMS disengaged. When that happened, outage call information could no longer be passed from the 877 number into the OMS. The failure of the OMS call processor was awaiting a patch from the vendor when the storm occurred. As with the conductor cut patch, the BWL should have been more diligent in securing a more timely fix. Customers whose outages were acknowledged by TFCC were not actually entered into the OMS. As a consequence, when customers did contact a CSR or use the walk in centers for an update, they were told that there was no outage reported at their address. IV.B.1.	BWL Response
32.	The BWL is working with the 877 vendor to provide additional methods for customers to be identified or matched when calling in to report an outage. This may include using the last digits of an account number or social security number. 33.	The interface between the 877 number and the OMS has been fixed and alarms will be added on each system to alert staff of any problems in the future. 34.	The BWL has added text outage reporting to the 877 system to offer customers another method for reporting outages. 35.	The BWL is working on a method to provide quicker updating of customer data from its CIS to the 877 system. This is intended to provide better matches of customers to service addresses. 36.	The BWL is working to improve its ability to automatically call back customers and provide them with updated outage information. 37.	The BWL will continue its enhancements to its phone system. The enhancements will use newer technology to increase Internet bandwidth, increase available phone lines, and make the system fully redundant across the BWL private city-wide network. This upgrade will allow the system to dynamically
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increase the number of available lines to the call center during a large outage, using many of them to forward calls to the 877 vendor site which is designed for large volumes. 38.	The BWL has increased the TFCC voice mailbox size to 8,000 messages and is in the process of contracting with another vendor to assist in responding to voice mailbox messages during a large outage. C.	BWL Internet Website The BWL has had an internet presence for a very long time. The current website underwent a major upgrade in 2009, adding functionality, the ability to add modules, allow multiple content contributors, and work within the BWL’s Windows/NetFramework architecture. The BWL’s site has had more than enough machine and bandwidth capacity to normal traffic. The BWL web site averages around three hundred (300) hits on an average day, which is well within its ability to handle. The BWL’s website software has been tested and certified to work with over 90% of the browsers in use today. During the recent ice storm the system handled up to twenty-seven thousand (27,000) hits in a day without an issue. Although the system performed to specifications and without incident, the possibility exists that whatever event causes a catastrophic outage in the BWL’s service territory may also adversely affect the BWL’s Internet connectivity or systems. Since the BWL’s Internet presence is a central source for BWL customers to get information this may require enhancements. IV.C.1.	BWL Response
39.	The BWL is investigating a separate site created just for outage information (including outage maps). This will help ensure that the BWL’s outage website will be available to customers in the event that a catastrophic outage disables the BWL’s main website. D.	BWL Email System The BWL’s email system serves the internal employees and acts as a scheduler for meetings and for conference rooms. It also serves as a voicemail repository for the BWL’s Voice Over Internet Protocol phone system. In 2010, BWL upgraded its system and, among other things, placed it on the critical systems list. This is a list of systems that are designed for reliability and availability, or high availability—24 hours a day, 365 days a year. 54 x Page
The BWL email system handles thousands of emails per day on a regular basis. A small subset, or about 3 or 4 on a normal day, are actually sent to the BWL Customer Service area. During the earlier storms in 2013, Customer Service mailbox usage averaged about 60 messages per day, and these were easily handled. During the ice storm, messages to the Customer Service mailbox averaged between 800 to a 1000 messages per day. The combination of bandwidth, mailbox size and architecture of the system allowed this all to function well within normal operating parameters. IV.D.1.	BWL Response
40.	Although the external email to Customer Service functioned normally during the storm, the BWL is investigating establishing a redundant external email system. E.	BWL Outage Map The BWL has previously worked with its OMS vendor to develop a web enabled outage map to display on its website. However, during the rollout of the OMS product technological flaws were encountered that caused the map portion of the OMS product to be delayed until after the core product was fully operational. In the meantime, the BWL has researched options for a web based map with a variety of vendors. Currently the BWL is pursuing one with local vendor IDV Solutions. The BWL’s website is designed to handle over twice the flow of traffic that hit the site during the 2013 ice storm (50,000 hits/day). The initial implementation of the system will use the BWL’s OMS to send outage information to the new outage website. This system will take that data and produce a thematic map using census blocks in the BWL service area. Customers will be able to pan, zoom or type in their address to zoom to their location on the map. In addition, they will be able to hover over an area to receive additional outage, ETR’s or other information. IV.E.1.	BWL Response
41.	The BWL has developed a temporary web-based outage map for its website. The BWL is also working with a local vendor for a permanent outage map linked directly to the BWL’s OMS system. Phase I of the project covering functionality has been completed and development is underway. Phase I is expected to be completed soon.
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42.	In Phase II of the project, the BWL plans to continue enhancements to all of its Information Systems that interact with customers. The next phase of the outage map product for BWL will include further interaction with our customers, allowing them to identify themselves to learn if our system shows them out of service as well as possibly reporting an outage through the map system to our OMS system. Other enhancements and features are being evaluated. 43.	In addition to using Twitter and Facebook, the BWL is investigating the use of Nixle to communicate outage and other information to its customers as well as offering a smart phone application.
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V. MANAGeMeNT OF STORM RespONse The BWL has an Emergency Action Plan (EAP) that is activated in the event of a catastrophic loss to BWL personnel or facilities. For emergencies that result from storms or other events that do not impair the BWL’s ability to control and communicate with crews, the BWL has specific response plans like the distribution plan discussed previously. These specific plans detail how the BWL will respond to the emergency, employee roles and responsibilities, event management structure, and communications protocols among other things. The EAP provides information and directions for catastrophic event coordination based on and consistent with the FEMA Incident Command System (ICS) within the National Incident Management System (NIMS) framework. The EAP establishes the BWL Unified Command Team as the General Manager, Assistant General Manager, and the Manager of Enterprise Risk Management. The Unified Command Team has the authority to activate the BWL Command and Communication Center (CCC) in the event of a catastrophic loss of BWL facilities and personnel. The role of the Unified Command Team is to insure that command, control, and communications are adequate for the effective deployment of BWL assets, resources, and personnel in response to a catastrophic event. If the normal BWL command, control, and communications system is impaired in any way, then the Unified Command Team may activate the CCC to insure that management is able to communicate effectively with and control the BWL response teams in the field as well as communicate and coordinate with the Lansing Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and the public media. The Lansing EOC incident management structure is organized by the NIMS ICS and is referred to as the Multi-Agency Coordination (MAC) Group. The BWL is a part of the MAC Group. The BWL did not need to activate its CCC during and after the ice storm since it could communicate with and manage its personnel. Instead, it followed its distribution plan, which incorporates the ICS structure. The BWL EAP sets forth the general procedures for restoration of service following a major electrical outage like the ice storm. Among other things it provides that the Executive Staff or the BWL CCC will coordinate efforts from the BWL and maintain communication with the Lansing EOC. Throughout outage, the BWL maintained communications with the Lansing EOC, either in person or through conference calls three times a day. The BWL believed that the Lansing EOC was in contact with other local EOC’s. Based on comments received by the BWL during its Community Forums, however, this may not have been the case. If not, the greater Lansing community may benefit from a more coordinated regional EOC operation.
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The BWL EAP further provides that BESOC will manage the restoration efforts while the Line Department provides resources as needed, Delivery and Support System Integrity provides spotters, Customer Service takes calls, and the Director of Communications handles all media requests and updates regarding the scope of the outages and restoration updates. The BWL’s distribution plan, like other best practice plans, is scalable—meaning that the plan is flexible and suitable for small as well as large outages. The amount of damage created by the ice storm, however, exceeded that experienced by any other Michigan utility. Storms with an impact, like the ice storm, affect nearly every part of a community and require a broader community response. Commenters at the Community Forums indicated that senior citizens and other vulnerable populations need special attention during an event like the ice storm. Some commenters wanted to know how the BWL used its medical alert list when determining how to restore power to the community. A concerted community response is needed to assure all citizens are cared for during a crisis. Many local institutions, agencies, and other groups, like neighborhood associations have a part to play in an event of this scale. These catastrophic events could be created by tornadoes, floods or other natural events and may only indirectly impact the BWL. Nevertheless, they could have a major impact on the Lansing community and the BWL will play is part in assisting community organizations to better plan, prepare, and react to these destructive events. Because it is an integral part of the Lansing community, the BWL’s plans would benefit from a more comprehensive community outreach effort to engage other community organizations in catastrophic storm response activity. For example, BWL could provide information to city officials to perform welfare checks on vulnerable populations like seniors or medically disabled individuals. While there are confidentiality issues that need to be resolved in coordinating services to these populations, these should not be insurmountable. There are other steps that the BWL can do to assist community organizations in dealing with a storm event of this magnitude. For example, during the ice storm numerous customers lost their electric service masts. Many customers were not aware that the service mast is the customer’s property and responsibility. When made aware, they were unsure who to contact to have the masts repaired or were challenged financially to pay the cost of repairs. Since the BWL could not restore service to these customers until the service masts were repaired, this caused some customers to experience outages longer than needed.
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V.1.	BWL Response 44.	The BWL will work with customers and local officials to determine how to make local officials aware of seniors, customers with medical alerts, and other vulnerable populations during extended outages. 45.	The BWL will be more proactive informing customers of where their responsibility for service ends, the service mast, and the BWL’s begins. 46.	The BWL will maintain a list of qualified electricians who can repair service masts and the BWL will help customers finance the cost of mast repair by allowing customers to pay it off on their bill over a one year period without interest. A list of qualified electricians will appear on the BWL’s website 47.	During events like the ice storm, the BWL will work with local organizations to inform customers of warming centers in the winter and cooling centers in the summer for Lansing area residents. 48.	As an integral part of the Lansing community, the BWL will work with other organizations to respond to crisis that may affect mid-Michigan in the future. The BWL is supporting work by The Power of We and others to help empower neighborhoods to react to any type of emergency. The BWL pledges to be a part of that coalition and play its part in protecting the Lansing community and to meet with neighborhood associations to explain the BWL storm response plans and listen to their concerns and questions.
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VI. External Communications Prior to the ice storm, the BWL did not have a crisis communications plan. During a crisis the BWL should be able to respond promptly and accurately to different audiences with information specific to their needs through a variety of communication channels. The BWL did not have such a plan. The BWL did supply a steady stream of information to its customers and the media during the outage event. For example, 36 ice storm outage news advisories were sent from 6 a.m. Sunday, December 22, 2013 through 10 a.m. Wednesday, January 1, 2014 (nearly 3 per day). These outage updates were designed to communicate to BWL customers and the public at large and sent simultaneously to: •	•	•	•	•	Lansing news media (and later to statewide and national media outlets) BWL Website Social Media – BWL Facebook and Twitter sites Lansing governmental officials BWL employee wide and Board of Commissioners
The outage updates were sent every day during the crisis ranging from early morning, mid-day, late afternoon and late evening. The BWL communicated in other ways as well like daily news briefings in the field providing restoration updates, and conducted dozens of interviews with local, state, and national news media, including local talk radio interviews. The BWL staff also posted hundreds of individual Facebook and SeeClickFix responses, including private messaging, responding to comments and more than 200 Tweets. BWL news advisories attempted to be responsive to customer concerns, providing the following information: •	•	•	•	•	•	•	Outage number Downed wire safety warning Number of crews in the field Intersection areas where line crews were working to repair circuits (plus next in line) Known outage streets with appeal to customers not on the street list to respond Customer walk-in centers throughout the community Mast repair customer responsibility and Meter Dept. extended hours for customer convenience
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The BWL made three restoration projections: 1.	On December 23rd, we announced that a “substantial portion” of BWL customers would have power by the end of Christmas Day.” Result – 90% of outage service territory was restored. 2.	Before the weekend of December 28th, we projected that fewer than 1,000 customers would be without power by the end of the weekend. By Monday, December 30th, 1,100 remained without power. 3.	Shortly thereafter, we projected full restoration of power by the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve night, Tuesday, December 31st. With the exception of approximately 10 customers connected to a pole being repaired, and hundreds of single service reconnections due to mast damage, at 10:00 a.m. on New Year’s Day, Wednesday, January 1st, the BWL reported that power was restored to its electric service territory. This communication effort, however, fell short of customer needs and the BWL’s standards for a number of reasons. Because the TFCC interface with the OMS failed and the OMS conductor cut function was not functional, the BWL could not always acknowledge customers’ outages, the BWL provided contradictory information, and it could not provide restoration times. The BWL did not consistently use all communications channels available to inform customers of the restoration progress. In addition, some customers could not be reached by the efforts that the BWL did undertake. For example, during the Community Forum meetings, senior citizens indicated that they preferred to receive information over the radio, not social media. Aside from news programs and talk radio programs, the BWL could have provided more information, especially to seniors, through radio advertisement. A number of local officials have stated that the BWL did not provide them with information that they needed to answer questions from their constituents. Citizens look to local officials for answers and guidance during crisis events. In turn, these officials need a consistent reliable source of information from the BWL. The BWL has proven to be adept at managing and responding to “normal” storms. The impact of storms that the PSC terms catastrophic (10% or more of a utility’s customers losing power) do not rise to the catastrophic level for the BWL. However, storms with the destructive power of the ice storm result in so much damage, that they are not merely a BWL emergency, they are a community crisis. These storms impact all aspects of a community. They affect public safety, the ability of businesses to serve their customers, the health and safety of residents, particularly vulnerable populations, schools, traffic, etc. Two critical components to a response plan after
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an event of this magnitude are (1) restoring power as quickly as possible while (2) clearly and consistently communicating with customers and the community the status and progress of the restoration effort and the estimated time required restoring power to customers. The later component of the emergency response was missing. Many of the tasks needed to provide information have already been identified. The OMS has been made fully functional. The 877 and OMS interface is in the process of a permanent fix and the BWL is developing a permanent crisis communications plan. VI.1.	BWL Response
49.	Since ice storm outage restoration, the BWL’s service territory has experienced a number of severe winter weather events, and five separate outage events ranging from 100 outages to 7,400 outages. In all of the severe weather events, the BWL has posted, on all communications channels, at least two days prior to the forecasted weather, warning customers about the impending storm and directing them to call the BWL “877” outage number if they lost power. The BWL has also continuously posted updates, cold weather safety tips, and City of Lansing updates. 50.	During the outages, the BWL has acknowledged the time the outage began, the number of outages, the cause of the outage, the geographic area of the outage that can be found on the outage map, the projected time of restoration, and full restoration all clear. 51.	Communication improvements have been noted on Facebook and Twitter with positive comments by our customers. 52.	The BWL has retained the communications firm of Martin Waymire to help develop a crisis communications plan based on an examination of best practices across the utility industry to make sure it has a strong crisis communications protocol in place in the very near future. Martin Waymire will also assist during emergencies if needed. In the meantime, the BWL has a working interim crisis communications plan. 53.	The BWL has also hired a social media specialist, a newly created position. The social media specialist will help develop strategies on how to best communicate with our customers over all social media channels. 54.	The BWL will provide information to state and local officials on a regular basis. During an event like the ice storm, it will assign a liaison to state and local officials to answer questions that they may have from their constituents. 62 x Page
VII. SUMMARY OF RespONses The BWL has worked hard to be counted among the most reliable utilities in Michigan and the nation. It intends to continually improve its ongoing reliability programs and its ability to respond to severe storms. The following list are action items which the BWL has already undertaken, is in the process of undertaking, or will in the near future undertake to improve its electric distribution storm response. A.	Storm Preparation: 1.	The BWL will include its distribution plan in its annual table top tests designed to stress its emergency response and will use the results to continually improve its emergency plans. 2.	The BWL will consider implementing a set of triggers into its distribution plan. 3.	The BWL will consolidate its Transmission and its Distribution emergency response plans into one document. 4.	The BWL will investigate the benefit of collaborating with other Michigan utilities to track and estimate the impact of inclement weather. 5.	Based on the BWL’s experience with the impact of the ice storm, the BWL will make use of additional secondary role employees and these roles will be discussed in subsequent sections. 6.	Most utilities have not found placing overhead lines underground to be cost effective. Instead reviewing maintenance practices and construction standards seems to be a more reasonable method for improving the resiliency of the BWL’s distribution system. However, for those customers who want and are willing to pay for undergrounding existing services, the BWL will provide the service. 7.	The BWL will strictly adhere to a 5 year trimming cycle and is in the process of modifying its tree trimming standards and procedures to remove all branches located above distribution lines and better protect its lines during a major storm. 8.	The BWL will begin to use multiple tree trimming contractors and assign work to contractors based on past performance. The contractor with the best record of performance will get a larger portion of the work. Recently, the BWL temporarily increased the number of tree trimming crews under contract to eighteen. Page x 63
9.	The BWL will publish the contact information for its supervisor responsible for trimming scheduling so customers can contact the supervisor directly with questions or complaints regarding tree trimming procedures and workmanship. B.	Outage Restoration Actions: 10.	The BWL is in the process of carefully reviewing spotter duty during the ice storm and determining how many additional trained spotters would be needed to efficiently secure down lines and provide timely damage assessment during an event with the destructive impact of the ice storm. Based on this analysis, the BWL will survey its staff for additional personnel who would be suitable for spotter duty and train personnel for both spotter and damage assessment duty. 11.	The BWL will also utilize retired line workers to perform damage assessments and serve as spotters. 12.	The BWL will consider contracting with electric service firms for damage assessment services to supplement its own staff. 13.	The BWL is developing common reporting forms and methods to be used by all spotters and damage assessors and will stress the importance of adhering to these during the annual training sessions. 14.	The BWL will evaluate the use of damage predictive tools to determine if these tools could help in assessing possible damage earlier in a storm’s approach. 15.	The BWL will remind customers that lines marked with red and white tape are power lines and the tape indicates that the BWL is aware that the line is down. The BWL will publish this information on its website and Customer Connections newsletter. 16.	The BWL has expanded the number of utilities and non-utility electric service contractors with which it has mutual aid agreements or service contracts. The list is shown below. Existing Agreements •	Michigan Municipal Electric Association (35 Municipal Utilities) •	Consumers Energy
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New Agreements •	American Public Power Association •	Asplundh •	Kent Power •	Hydaker-Wheatlake •	FEMA Mutual Aid (Upon a Declaration of a State of Emergency) Pending Agreements •	DTE Energy (Under Negotiations) These agreements both increase the number of potential crew sources and provide geographical diversity as well. For example the APPA agreement would enable the BWL to bring crews in from a number of different states. In the event of a declaration of emergency, the FEMA agreement would allow the BWL to bring in crews from nearly anywhere in the United States. 17.	The BWL is in the process of hiring 3 additional line workers and an additional dispatcher to supplement its workforce and to help manage crews during the restoration process. 18.	With the addition of 3 line workers, an additional dispatcher, more trained spotters, and the new mutual aid agreements the BWL has tripled the number of line crews that are available for immediate deployment and can be used safely and efficiently during a major outage event. 19.	The BWL does update its critical and public safety lists periodically to ensure that it is up to date and complete. The BWL will share its overall restoration plans with local public officials so that they can be kept up to date on the BWL’s restoration plans. If another catastrophic storm does occur, local officials will be better able to respond to citizen inquiries regarding the restoration progress. 20.	The BWL will review it’s storm inventory based on the recent ice storm. 21.	The BWL will investigate connecting its line truck laptops to its OMS system as a tool to assist crews with storm responses.
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22.	The BWL has resolved the matters related to the OMS functionality. The conductor cuts are now operational and the OMS performs to design standards. 23.	To avoid this situation with other outage tools that may be employed in the future, the BWL will conduct annual stress tests of all its restoration tools including, but not limited to the OMS, outage call in number, Customer Service Center, and Communications plans. 24.	The BWL is moving forward with a project to implement smart grid and smart meter technology, which will allow it to identify individual customer outages. It will also develop a policy that will allow customers to “opt out” of smart meter use. C.	Customer Communications: 25.	The BWL is hiring additional call center staff. 26.	The BWL has implemented a process to assure call forward to the 877 number occurs during large outages. This will allow CSR and supporting staff to concentrate on line down, voice mail and other communications mediums. 27.	The BWL will trigger the IVR in the 877 system to direct non-matched callers to voicemail during major outage events. 28.	The BWL has reconfigured the Call Center to send messages in the voice mailbox to CSR’s automatically. 29.	The BWL is aggressively advertised the 877 number for outages including all available communications mediums, like magnets, social media, BWL Website, and other customer communications. 30.	During a major outage, the BWL Call Center staff will focus their efforts on responding to email, texts, Facebook, Twitter, Nixle and voicemails left on the outage reporting system with the goal of responding to storm related inquiries in a timely fashion. The BWL has expanded the number of employees in secondary storm roles to assist with these customer service functions. 31.	The BWL will ensure that the distribution plan weather forecasting and storm preparation function include employees who are directly or indirectly, through secondary roles, responsible for customer service. This, along with other changes, will assure that the BWL can respond to customer inquiries promptly. 66 x Page
32.	The BWL is working with the 877 vendor to provide additional methods for customers to be identified or matched when calling in to report an outage. This may include using the last digits of an account number or social security number. 33.	The interface between the 877 number and the OMS has been fixed and alarms will be added on each system to alert staff of any problems in the future. 34.	The BWL has added text outage reporting to the 877 system to offer customers another method for reporting outages. 35.	The BWL is working on a method to provide quicker updating of customer data from BWL system to 877 system. This is intended to provide better matches of customers to service addresses. 36.	The BWL is working to improve its ability to automatically call back customers and provide them with updated outage information. 37.	The BWL will continue its enhancements to its phone system. The enhancements will use newer technology to increase Internet bandwidth, increase available phone lines, and make the system fully redundant across the BWL private city-wide network. This upgrade will allow the system to dynamically increase the number of available lines to the call center during a large outage, using many of them to forward calls to the 877 vendor site which is designed for large volumes. 38.	The BWL has increased the TFCC voice mailbox size to 8,000 messages and is in the process of contracting with another vendor to assist in responding to voice mailbox messages during a large outage. 39.	The BWL is investigating a separate site created just for outage information (including outage maps). This will help ensure that the BWL’s outage website will be available to customers in the event that a catastrophic outage disables the BWL’s main website. 40.	Although the external email to Customer Service functioned normally during the storm, the BWL is investigating establishing a redundant external email system. 41.	The BWL has developed a temporary web-based outage map for its website. The BWL is also working with a local vendor for a permanent outage map linked
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directly to the BWL’s OMS system. Phase I of the project covering functionality has been completed and development is underway. Phase I is expected to be completed soon. 42.	In Phase II of the project, the BWL plans to continue enhancements to all of its Information Systems that interact with customers. The next phase of the outage map product for BWL will include further interaction with our customers, allowing them to identify themselves to learn if our system shows them specifically out as well as possibly reporting an outage through the map system to our OMS system. Other enhancements and features are being evaluated. 43.	In addition to using twitter and Facebook, the BWL is investigating the use of Nixle to communicate outage and other information to its customers. D.	Management of Storm Response: 44.	The BWL will work with customers and local officials to determine how to make local officials aware of seniors, customers with medical alerts, and other vulnerable populations during extended outages. 45.	The BWL will be more proactive informing customers of where their responsibility for service ends, the service mast, and the BWL’s begins. 46.	The BWL will maintain a list of qualified electricians who can repair service masts and the BWL will help customers finance the cost of mast repair by allowing customers to pay it off on their bill over a one year period without interest. A list of qualified electricians will appear on the BWL’s website. 47.	During events like the ice storm, the BWL will work with local organizations to maintain warming centers in the winter and cooling centers in the summer for Lansing area residents. 48.	As an integral part of the Lansing community, the BWL will work with other organizations to respond to crisis that may affect mid-Michigan in the future. The BWL is supporting work by The Power of We and others to help empower neighborhoods to react to any type of emergency. The BWL pledges to be a part of that coalition and play its part in protecting the Lansing community and to meet with neighborhood associations to explain the BWL storm response plans and listen to their concerns and questions.
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E.	External Communications: 49.	Since ice storm outage restoration, the BWL’s service territory has experienced a number of severe winter weather events, and four separate outage events ranging from 100 outages to 7,400 outages. In all of the severe weather events, the BWL has posted, on all communications channels, at least two days prior to the forecasted weather, warning customers about the impending storm and directing them to call the BWL “877” outage number if they lost power. The BWL has also continuously posted updates, cold weather safety tips, and City of Lansing updates. 50.	During the outages, the BWL has acknowledged the time the outage began, the number of outages, the cause of the outage, the geographic area of the outage that can be found on the outage map, the projected time of restoration, and full restoration all clear. 51.	Communication improvements have been noted on Facebook and Twitter with positive comments by our customers. 52.	The BWL has retained the communications firm of Martin Waymire to help develop a crisis communications plan based on an examination of best practices across the utility industry to make sure it has a strong crisis communications protocol in place in the very near future. Martin Waymire will also assist during emergencies if needed. In the meantime, the BWL has a working interim crisis communications plan. 53.	The BWL has also hired a social media specialist, a newly created position. The social media specialist will help develop strategies on how to best communicate with our customers over all social media channels. 54.	The BWL will provide information to state and local officials on a regular basis. During an event like the ice storm, it will assign a liaison to state and local officials to answer questions that they may have from their constituents.
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VIII.	sUMMARY OF pUBLIC COMMeNTs On January 15th, 16th, and 17th, the BWL conducted Community Forum meetings in East Lansing, Delta Township and Lansing. During the meetings, attendees were encouraged to share their outage experiences, storm response improvement recommendations, and any questions that they have regarding the storm and the BWL’s response with the Staff. The Staff committed to addressing issues and questions in its top-down review. Substantially all the questions and comments have been answered or addressed in this report. Transcripts of the Town Hall meetings are attached for reference. A summary of the comments are shown on the following page.
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ATTACHMeNTs A-D ON pAGes 72-76
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COMPARATIVE RELIABILITY INDICES In the U.S., three indices are commonly used to measure electric reliability. System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI). This measures total outage minutes experienced by all customers of a utility divided by the total number of customers served by a utility, recognizing that not all customers experience an outage. Customer Average Interruption Duration Index (CAIDI). This measures the average outage duration for those customers who do experience an outage. System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI). This measures the average number of interruptions per customer. The Michigan Public Service Commission (PSC) has required the regulated utilities under its jurisdiction to annually report their reliability as measured by these indices (SAIDI, CAIDI & SAIFI). As Michigan’s largest municipal utility, the BWL is frequently compared to Michigan’s large investor owned utilities such as Detroit Edison (now DTE Energy) and Consumers Energy. The following pages show how the BWL’s electric reliability indices compare to DTE Energy and Consumers Energy for the past several years.
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ATTACHMeNT B BWL ELeCTRIC SeRVICe TeRRITORY MAp
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ATTACHMeNT C BWL CUsTOMeR ResTORATION CURVe
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ATTACHMeNT D TweNTY-FIRsT CeNTURY CUsTOMeR LIsT
•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	Alameda Municipal Power Algoma Power (fka Great Lakes Power/ Brookfield Power) Alliant Energy Ameren American Electric Power (AEP) Austin Energy, Texas Baltimore Gas & Electric (aka Constellation Energy) (Exelon) Black Hills Corporation Bowie Cass CenterPoint (fka Reliant) Central Hudson Central Lincoln PUD Central Maine Power (Iberdrola) Clark Public Utilities CLECO Power Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd) (Exelon) Con Edison Cowlitz County PUD #1 CPS Energy Dayton Power & Light (DPL) Dominion Power (Virginia Power) Duke Power Company (included Cinergy 1309) Duquesne Enmax Entergy Services Inc ERCOT Eugene Water & Electric First Energy Corporation (and Allegheny Power) Flint Electric Membership Corporation Florida Power & Light Fortis Alberta & BC FPL Energy Great Plains Energy - Kansas City Power & Light Great Plains Energy - KCP&L Greater Missouri (fka Aquila) Greenville Utilities Greystone Power Corporation Hawaiian Electric (HECO) Inland Power & Light Jacksonville Electric Authority (JEA) Jefferson County, MT Knoxville Utilities Board Kootenai Electric Lakeland Electric Lansing Board of Water & Light LG&E/KU (Louisville Gas & Electric/Kentucky Utilities) •	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	LIM-College for Business Fashion Lincoln Electric Systems Lockheed Martin Logan County, CO Los Alamos National Lab Los Angeles County Long Island Power (LIPA) Memphis Light, Gas & Electric MidAmerican Energy Company MidAmerican Energy Company - PacifiCorp Middle Tennessee Electric National Grid National Grid - Keyspan (LIP) Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) North Little Rock Electric Northeast Utilities Northern Ireland Electricity Northern Ireland Water Nova Scotia Power NSTAR NYSEG (Iberdrola) Oklahoma Gas & Electric Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) Oncor Electric Delivery Company (TXU Distribution Services) Orange and Rockland (under Con Ed) Pacific Gas & Electric (1222 & 1255) PECO (Exelon) Pedernales Electric Pennsylvania Power & Light (PPL Electric Utilities) Pepco Holdings, Inc. (PHI) - Potomac Electric Progress Energy - Carolina Power Progress Energy - Florida Power Rochester (Iberdrola) Rocky Mountain Power (PacifiCorp) Sacramento Municipal District (SMUD) SCANA Services Inc. (fka South Carolina Electric and Gas) South Central Power Southern California Edison Southern Companies Talquin Electric Cooperative Tampa Electric Texas Attorney General Trinity Valley Electric Cooperative United Illuminating Company Washington Gas & Light WE Energies Westar Energy Xcel Energy Services Inc
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Sign up to vote on this titleUsefulNot usefulBWL December 2013 Ice Storm Outage Report by LansingStateJournal0.0 (0)EmbedDownloadDescriptionThe Lansing Board of Water & Light's internal report on its ice storm response.The Lansing Board of Water & Light's internal report on its ice storm response.Read on Scribd mobile: iPhone, iPad and Android.Copyright: Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)Download as PDF, TXT or read online from ScribdFlag for inappropriate contentShow moreShow less
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