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Edison Electric Institute Honors Electric Utilities With Emergency Recovery and Assistance Awards

Posted on: Wednesday, 10 January 2007, 18:00 CST

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Jan. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- The Edison Electric Institute today honored 11 electric utilities for their outstanding efforts to restore electric service or assist other utilities in restoring service following major storms or other natural events during 2006.

The "Emergency Recovery Award" and the "Emergency Assistance Award" are presented annually to U.S. and foreign-based member companies to recognize outstanding efforts in restoring disrupted electric service. Winners were chosen by a panel of judges following a national and international nomination process, and awards were presented during EEI's winter CEO meetings here Wednesday.

Receiving the "Emergency Recovery Award" were Ameren Corporation, Duke Energy, Hydro One Networks, National Grid, NorthWestern Energy and NYSEG, and receiving the "Emergency Assistance Award" were American Electric Power, Entergy, FirstEnergy Corp., Georgia Power and Indianapolis Power & Light.

"When storms interrupt electric service to large groups of customers, our industry has a long and unswerving tradition of restoring power quickly and reaching out to fellow utilities in need of assistance," said EEI President Tom Kuhn. "These companies and their employees met that challenge during the past year, working long hours in sometimes dangerous conditions to ensure that electricity was restored as quickly as possible."

The 2006 award-winners faced unprecedented power restoration challenges during a year of extremely powerful and damaging weather events. Following are short descriptions of their efforts:

* Ameren employees responded to the largest outage in the company's history following back-to-back summer storms that left almost 1 million customers without electricity. The company dispatched more than 5,300 employees and contractors working up to 18 hours a day in 100-degree heat and other trying conditions in a week-long effort to restore electricity to affected customers. * Duke Energy employees faced similar circumstances in early winter when the second-worst storm in the company's history left more than 940,000 customers in North and South Carolina without power. The company marshaled personnel from 30 utilities and contractor companies from 16 different states to join the company's 6,500 employees and contractors. * Hydro One Networks saw outages of 170,000, 150,000 and 90,000 customers during respective storms in July, August and September, and each time the company restored power within seven days to an affected service territory twice the size of Texas. * Leaves were still on trees in National Grid's service territory when two feet of snow fell Oct. 12, which meant that thousands of overburdened limbs, branches and trees came down and brought with them hundreds of miles of electric distribution and transmission lines -- leaving 265,000 customers without power. National Grid responded by marshalling utility workers from across 19 states and three Canadian provinces, and within eight days 98 percent of all affected customers had their power restored. * NorthWestern Energy saw all 57,899 of its electricity customers lose service when a major ice storm coupled with several days of blizzard conditions struck South Dakota. The company responded in kind with its largest-ever power restoration effort, and, in spite of a second blizzard, restored power to more than 80 percent of those customers within four days and 95 percent within a week. * The same October snowstorm that affected National Grid customers also struck NYSEG's service territory, leaving 80 percent of the company's customers in Western New York without power. The company dispatched a team of 800 front-line and support personnel who worked around the clock to restore power to the 140,000 affected customers within eight days. * Though still deeply involved in restoring electricity service to parts of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Entergy provided restoration assistance to Ameren when the twin summer storms struck the latter company's service territory. Entergy's "Emergency Assistance Award" marked the ninth consecutive year the company won either that award or the "Emergency Recovery Award," making it the only utility in the country to do so. * American Electric Power assisted fellow utilities in electric service restoration on 19 separate occasions, dispatching more than 1,000 employees and contractors and more than 500 utility trucks to 14 states -- from Connecticut to Missouri to South Carolina. Those workers spent almost 85,000 accident-free employee hours helping to restore power. * FirstEnergy also was among the utilities that responded to requests for help following the surprise October snow storms in Western New York. The company sent 167 employees and 64 company trucks to assist National Grid division Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation in restoring power to 265,000 customers. * Georgia Power won its "Emergency Assistance Award" for the second consecutive year, giving Southern Company's combined subsidiaries 10 such awards during the past nine years. This year's award resulted from Georgia Power's effort assisting Dominion Virginia Power to restore electric service after Hurricane Ernesto caused power outages to more than 400,000 customers. * Indianapolis Power and Light Company provided assistance to fellow utility companies on four separate occasions during 2006, responding to requests for help after severe windstorms in Kentucky, St. Louis and Illinois and a severe winter storm in Michigan caused widespread outages. Company crews spent from a few days to more than a week helping restore power in the storm-damaged areas.

Edison Electric Institute (EEI) is the association of United States shareholder-owned electric companies, international affiliates, and industry associates worldwide. Our U.S. members serve 97 percent of the ultimate customers in the shareholder owned segment of the industry, and 71 percent of all electric utility ultimate customers in the nation. They generate almost 60 percent of the electricity produced by U.S. electric generators.

Edison Electric Institute

CONTACT: Ed Legge of Edison Electric Institute, +1-202-508-5074

Web site: http://www.eei.org/

Source: PRNewswire

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