UI Employees Commit More than 140 Hours in Training on Storm Response and Restoration

As hurricane season begins, exercises help familiarize employees with their responsibilities and new outage-tracking technology during severe weather


 

ORANGE, Conn. — May 31, 2024 — In advance of the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 30, employees of United Illuminating (UI), a subsidiary of Avangrid, Inc. (NYSE: AGR), have collectively completed more than 140 hours in training related to storm response and outage restoration for customers. During the trainings, the company’s Key Account Managers led employees through an informational session on how UI responds to storms, how the UI Emergency Command Center (ECC) operates, and how to action requests from municipal officials during severe weather, and they provided an overview of the Focal Point software, which is UI’s internal Outage Management System software.

"Effectively responding to storms and restoring power during and after severe weather is the most critical function that we as utility employees undertake as we serve our customers," said Frank Reynolds, President & CEO of UI. "Here at UI, we are doing more than preparing for the 2024 storm season: we are executing a strategic plan to ensure we are coordinated and aligned as we build seamless communication channels between our internal team and our external stakeholders. We are committed to implementing measures to mitigate power outages through tree trimming and electrical infrastructure upgrades to enhance resiliency and reliability so that we at UI are ready and prepared no matter what storms lie ahead.”

Last week, the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration (NOAA) released its 2024 storm season prediction, which forecasts an 85 percent chance of above-normal hurricane and tropical storm activity due to the effects of La Nina and warmer-than-average ocean temperatures. Over the last 15 years, the Northeast has been impacted by several of these tropical storms, including Hurricane Lee (2023), Tropical Storm Isaias (2020), Hurricane Sandy (2012), and Hurricane Irene (2011).

When Connecticut experiences severe weather, UI employees take on the responsibilities of a previously assigned storm role, regardless of their responsibilities in their blue-sky role. This means employees may be assigned roles within the Emergency Response Plan (ERP) that differ from their regular duties. Many UI team members become Municipal Liaisons, whose role involves directly coordinating with town and city officials during severe weather to resolve power-related issues in their communities, such as power outages in critical facilities (e.g., hospitals or nursing homes).

To ensure UI staff are adequately trained on how to respond to and action issues and problems raised by municipal officials, UI’s Key Account Managers, who act as Liaison Team Coordinators during severe weather, conduct annual liaison training sessions to review job responsibilities and duties and to improve processes and communications throughout storm season. The Key Account Managers also provided an overview of Focal Point, which is software that filters through live and historical information on outage events, locations, and customers affected, and provides users with access to regional and town views of outage-related information. This year, 70 employees participated in this training, and the Key Account Managers are planning additional training materials, particularly on Focal Point, to accompany existing collateral.

"We always prepare for the worst during hurricane season," said Chuck Eves, Vice President of Electric Operations at UI. "Many of us, including myself, experienced Hurricane Sandy and Tropical Storm Isaias, and the impact these events had on our customers and our infrastructure drives us to work hard to mitigate the impact of future storm events. UI employees are the first line of communication with our customers, municipal leaders, regulatory and government officials, media, and other essential stakeholders. Ensuring everyone is prepared to respond to storms across every vertical of the company – whether that is communicating with customers, deploying crews and resources to outages, removing fallen trees from our electric infrastructure, and more – helps us all work more efficiently to restore power to all our customers.”

In the aftermath of a significant weather event, UI crews follow a restoration hierarchy outlined in our Emergency Response Plan that is reviewed by PURA on a biannual basis. First, UI partners with municipalities to restore power to any of the previously identified 173 municipal priority locations and open roads blocked by fallen trees and downed wires. Next, UI focuses on substation restoration and mainline restoration before crews turn to restoring power to remaining customers as quickly as possible, working from the circuits with the largest outages to the smallest. This commitment to customer service is at the heart of UI's operation, ensuring that customers feel valued and prioritized.

For more information about UI’s storm restoration process and tips for staying safe, visit https://www.uinet.com/stormsafety. 

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