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April 23, 2010
Charles A. Freni, Senior Vice President of Customer Services
Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corporation
My name is Charles A. Freni, Senior Vice President of Customer Services for Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corporation. I would like to thank Assemblyman Kevin Cahill and members of his committee and staff for allowing our participation in these proceedings.
The winter storm, which occurred from February 23rd through February 27th, was the most significant storm event in Central Hudson’s 110-year history. Two distinct weather systems brought heavy, wet snowfall to our service area, with some areas experiencing accumulations of greater than six feet over the course of the back-to-back storms. In total, the storm affected 203,000, or roughly two-thirds, of our customers.
At the peak of the first storm, 92,000 customers were out of service, primarily in the central and northern parts of our service area. This storm alone was the third worst event in Central Hudson history in terms of customers affected. The restoration effort for this storm was underway, and half of the affected customers had been restored, when the second storm hit.
The second storm also brought heavy, wet snow over most of our service territory and the snow continued for another 3 days . The peak customers affected from the combination of the first and second storms was 155,000 customers with southern Dutchess and Orange counties being the most severely impacted areas.
Electric service was restored to substantially all of our customers within a week of the first storm, utilizing a workforce of electric line and tree trimming crews nearly five times our normal compliment. These crews addressed more than 4,500 damage locations, often working in extremely challenging conditions. In total, more than 1,500 personnel including employees, mutual aid and contract crews worked round the clock to clear roads, repair lines, replace damaged equipment and provide customer support functions during this unprecedented natural disaster.
The severe weather blocked roadways and hampered access to the most heavily damaged areas of our service territory. States of emergency were declared by several regional counties and municipalities, including Orange, Greene and Putnam counties, the Towns of Wappinger, Fishkill, and East Fishkill and the City of Beacon. Interstate Route 84 closed for many hours from Newburgh to the Connecticut border due to heavy snow and vehicular accidents.
As early as Sunday, February 21st, before the storm reached our service area, we began monitoring weather reports and forecasts provided by Weather Service International and the National Weather Service. We also participated in conference calls with the Albany and Long Island offices of the National Weather Service in an effort to assess the potential impact the storm would have on our system. None of the weather forecasts had predicted more than 13” of snow, which was only expected in the higher elevations of Kingston and Catskill districts. The predictions for the second weather system were for higher snowfall amounts in certain areas, however, changeover to rain was predicted over much of our service territory.
Based on the forecasts and our assessment, we immediately began to secure resources in preparation for the storm. Contract line and tree trimming crews performing routine services for Central Hudson were put on alert to assist with restoration efforts as required. As the storm developed and more detailed weather information became available, storm restoration planning meetings were held daily to determine resource requirements for the expected back-to-back storm events. Daily communications with customers on life support apparatus occurred throughout the storm.
Beginning on February 24, Central Hudson initiated mutual aid requests from the New York Mutual Aid Group member utilities. From these calls it was clear, due to the wide spread nature of this storm event, all companies needed to experience the impact of the storm on their system before they could make any commitment to mutual aid support. Because other utility mutual aid assistance was not immediately available from nearby utilities, we began to seek resources from electric line contractors. Within the first 24-hours, 30 electric and 30 line clearance contract crews were secured and assisted in the restoration efforts. Through our continued efforts to seek assistance, over the next three days, private contract crews continued to arrive from as far away as Michigan, together with 65 line crews from National Grid. In total, 271 electric line crews and 98 line clearance crews supplemented Central Hudson’s force of 62 line crews, for a total complement of 369 line and line clearance crews.
The heavy, wet snow dropped by the storm weighed down trees and branches and caused many to break or fall onto power lines. The storm caused twelve transmission breaker lock-outs, 32 distribution circuit breaker lock-outs, 134 broken poles and damage to hundreds of individual service lines. Blocked roads and deep snow necessitated the use of snowshoes by line crews in some areas to access and repair damaged lines.
Central Hudson follows our Electric Emergency Plan when addressing outages following storms events, and storm drills are conducted annually to keep skills and procedures fresh. For this storm every available Central Hudson employee was assigned a task directly related to restoring electric service or providing critical support functions including material delivery, computer systems support, purchasing and procurement, dry ice/bottled water distribution, customer communications and meal deliveries to field crews at their job sites to maximize daylight work hours and hasten the restoration process.
Consistent with our emergency plan, restoration work is prioritized to repair damage that will safely restore service to the largest number of customers first, with priority to circuits supplying critical facilities such as emergency response units and health and human services. Electric service was restored to 50 percent of customers affected by the first storm before arrival of the second and then to nearly one-third of all customers affected within 36 hours following the storm. The large contingent of Central Hudson and outside repair crews, managed by Central Hudson employees, continued to make significant progress in the days following, with electric service restored to approximately two-thirds of affected customers by the end of Sunday February 28. On the fourth day following the combined event, over 95 percent of our customers had their service restored.
The damage affected both roadway circuits and off-road sections, and most of the fallen trees were from outside of the trimming zone and easements. A recent consultant’s report indicated that tree density in the Mid-Hudson Valley is 26 percent higher than the national utility average, with more than 122 trees per mile along electric lines. Central Hudson follows a comprehensive vegetation management program to address tree contact, and we have nearly doubled our investment in line clearing activities in the last five years. The distribution program includes enhanced trimming, and the recently established modified enhanced trimming program, which began in 2007, provides increased side clearances and removal of overhanging limbs. Both the enhanced and modified enhanced trimming includes removal of danger trees from outside the easement with permission from property owners. We have also focused attention on our transmission system, and recent work along these lines has cleared encroaching tree growth from within the easements.
Tree trimming is performed on a four-year cycle, and has had a positive affect in reducing storm damage to the electric system and customer outages. More than 50 percent of all circuit miles have been trimmed to the new specifications since March 2007, contributing to Central Hudson’s reliability statistics which have out-performed targets set by the New York State Public Service Commission for the last two consecutive years.
In addition to tree trimming, Central Hudson invests regularly in the electric distribution and transmission system to improve service reliability and meet the needs of our customers. Substation upgrades, additional distribution circuits, installation of Automatic Load Transfer devices, and reconstruction of facilities in high-growth areas, are all examples of the steps we take to improve the quality and reliability of service. These investments have increased by more than 40 percent since 2004, and are currently budgeted at an annual level of approximately $60 million.
Global estimated restoration times for the majority of customers were provided on Thursday February 25, approximately 36-hours following the first storm, and were updated on Sunday February 28 to include outages incurred during the second storm. Individual customers were able to access available estimated restoration times through live representatives, automated call taking systems, and on Central Hudson’s web site. The new StormCentral feature on our web site, launched in the fall off 2009 was available to customers, the news media, and emergency response officials and provided maps of outage locations with available restoration times as well as summary information by county and municipality. A mobile application of StormCentral for web-enabled cell phones and other portable devices was also available during this event, having just been launched 2 weeks prior to the storm.
Our Call Center handled more than 342,000 calls during the week, which is equivalent to half the typical annual volume. Of these calls more than 61,000 were handled by live representatives, and more than 12,000 trouble reports were generated through our main Web site and mobile StormCentral application.
Dry ice and bottled water distribution began on Thursday, February 25 at four locations within the hardest hit areas, and continued until Tuesday, March 2 at various sites until no longer required. More than 223,000 pounds of dry ice and 71,000 bottles of water were distributed at 15 separate locations in Ulster, Dutchess, Orange and Greene counties.
Communications with customers, municipalities, counties and state officials were ongoing throughout the duration of the storm and restoration process. Call Center upfront-recorded messages were updated regularly to provide callers with the latest restoration information. Seven daily Community Briefing conference calls were held with more than 40 municipal officials, county emergency management agencies and elected representatives, beginning on Tuesday, Feb. 24. In addition, more than 60 updates were provided to elected state officials by our Government Affairs liaison, and regular telephone contact was maintained with municipalities by our district personnel. Central Hudson employees were stationed at four of the county emergency management offices with direct computer links to our Outage Management System, and 30 status reports were filed with the New York State Public Service Commission staff outlining remaining outages, crew assignments and available estimated restoration times by municipality. Central Hudson’s President Jim Laurito also held regular status calls with Public Service Commission Chair Garry Brown.
Status reports on repair efforts, information on dry ice and water distribution, shelter locations, and pertinent safety information were issued through 21 press releases, radio announcements and also through the StormCentral section of Central Hudson’s Web site.. In total, StormCentral and the Web site received nearly 138,000 hits, with more than 395,000 pages viewed; the StormCentral mobile site received almost 16,000 hits. Daily newspaper print and Internet reports also kept customers informed, and more than 140 calls and interviews were fielded from the local, statewide and national news media.
The Central Hudson Emergency Communication Network was activated on Friday, Feb. 26, and continued through Monday, March 1, broadcasting pre-recorded messages more than 1,100 times on 22 AM and FM radio stations on restoration updates, safety measures, dry ice and bottled water distribution centers and shelter locations.
As shelter information became available by local chapters of the American Red Cross, emergency management agencies and other organizations, we posted this information on our website. Shelter locations were also made available to our Customer Service Representatives for use addressing customer inquiries. Shelter locations were developed in conjunction with the providing agencies based on our estimates of highest concentration of outages.
The Outage Management System (OMS) withstood a major test of its capabilities, and successfully processed more than 96,000 individual trouble orders over the course of the storm. Restoration information from OMS was used by Customer Service Representatives, the automated telephone system, the Web site and the StormCentral outage map.
One of the most significant accomplishments during this storm event was safety performance. Not one employee or contractor was seriously injured during the restoration effort. In fact, only one minor incident was reported, which was not serious enough to prevent the worker from continuing to perform his duties. This is a testament to the high working standards exhibited by all who participated in the restoration effort. To ensure that all field forces understood and followed our safety requirements, Central Hudson's foremen and Safety Director reviewed our safe work practices with mutual aid and contractor crews upon their arrival. This was particularly critical under the extraordinary conditions during and following these storms. We are pleased to report that our safety messages were taken to heart, and every worker returned home to their families safely.
The damage and ensuing outages from this storm event was the largest ever to impact our service area, and we thank the municipal and county emergency response professionals from our region that provided valuable assistance and coordination in clearing roads, providing shelters, communicating with our communities and aiding in our restoration efforts. Their role and cooperation was invaluable in expediting the repairs that restored service to our customers.
We also implemented lessons learned from past storms, particularly the December 2008 ice storm, including more rapid damage assessment, enhanced communications with municipal officials and greater use of mutual aid assistance. In addition, we implemented the one recommendation of the Public Service Commission in their assessment of the December 2008 ice storm, to retain call center records over a longer time period.
Thank you, and I would be glad to answer any questions that members of your committee
may have.
Storm statistics:
- Meals delivered to Crews – 7,700
- Safety – 1 First Aid Accident
- Cases of Trouble – 4,532
- Number of Customers Restored – 203,293
- Trouble Orders Posted to OMS – 97,906
- Broken Poles – 134
- Line Crews – 271 (including 62 Central Hudson Crews)
- Line Clearance Crews – 98
- Number of Customer Calls – 342,242 (61,186 answered by Customer Service Representatives)
- PSC Complaints – 0
- New Releases – 21
- Municipal Briefings - 7
- Website Hits – 137,837 (395,316 pages viewed)
- Mobile StormCentral Hits – 15,899
- Dry Ice Distributed – 223,924 lbs
- Bottles of Water Distributed – 71,664
- Hotel Rooms Reserved – 3,919 (single day peak 745)
- Office and Field Support Individuals – 585
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