CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The first thing people want to know when the power goes out is how long before it is back on. While it’s a simple question, it’s not a simple answer. However, Appalachian Power officials say their company is constantly trying to improve the response time for restoration in a catastrophic event. They’re also trying to improve communications so customers will know what’s going on with the repair efforts.
“Most customers are okay with the fact they are out of power after a significant weather event,” said Scott Chambers, Operations Support Manger for Appalachian Power Company. “But we have to do a good job of trying to tell them when they might have it back on so they can plan their life.”
Officials hope the implementation of a new Incident Command and Control structure to respond to emergency events will help. The company staged a drill company wide, based out of Charleston Wednesday to exercise all of the different arms of the ICC structure. Chambers said the protocol will not only help streamline response to outages, but will also enable them to better coordinate with government organizations and to evaluate any problems.
“We have moved to the incident command structure to better communicate with those folks. We speak the same language,” said Chambers. “It’s a tried and true response organization that’s been used since the 1970’s. It helps us prepare better and it has a mechanism to review our success and failures and to address those the next time.”
One thing is always certain, there will always be a next time. Chambers said the goal is to be as ready as possible. Some storms strike with plenty of warning. Those storms allow the company to pre-position supplies and personnel to rapidly respond. However, the unexpected storms are the ones which are most difficult. Chambers said the Incident Command structure is used in government, law enforcement, and military applications and it made sense to craft their emergency management company wide in a similar fashion.
“We take this very serious. We’re prepared and when any of these events are expected we go through a process to get ready,” explained Chambers. “When the unexpected happens, as in our drill today, we quickly engage folks and we activate our plans that are tried and true.”