Utilities Spell Out Disaster Plans

Washington Water Power Co. di patchers equipped with a new telephone system will be able to update customers almost constantly on ou age repairs in their Zip code area, Customer Service Manager Anne-Marie Axworthy said Thursday.

The $1 million system includes visual displays that show the location of outages, their extent and the possible cause - information that can be relayed to repair crews, she said.

Callers will be able to talk with a live operator, or report outages automatically by pushing a series of telephone buttons when lines are swamped, as they were during the ice storm last November 19.

A influx of 18,000 calls that day, and 110,000 during the 13-day outage that affected more than 100,000 customers, frustrated many who were trying to get information about repairs, President Les Bryan said.

“We are going to be better,” he said during a review of changes the company has made to its emergency operations plan in the last year.

WWP examined its response capabilities in conjunction with the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission.

The improved customer communication system was one of several recommendations made by regulators. Others included more training, greater cooperation with local emergency agencies, and decentralization of management.

A separate study of prevention programs like tree-trimming will be finished next year.

Axworthy said the new phone system will enable WWP to field as many as 7,000 calls per hour, with a contract pending with an outside provider who would take 3,000 more.

When complete, the system will also call customers to confirm their power has been restored when crews send information repairs have been completed, she said.

Al Fisher, operations manager for electricity and gas distribution, said carving Spokane into eight command areas during emergencies will enable managers to handle more crews.

But to avoid compromising safety, workers in those areas will have to get clearance from dispatchers at the central office before undertaking some repairs, he said.

Fisher said WWP’s new Coeur d’Alene facility will serve as a backup central office if a catastrophe like an earthquake knocks out the headquarters on East Mission.

The Idaho facility can handle the task, he said, but employees have not yet conducted a drill involving the transfer of operations to the alternative center.

Also, in Coeur d’Alene, Kootenai Electric Cooperative has installed a global-positioning system that will enable dispatchers to monitor the movement of its trucks, spokeswoman Catherine Parochetti said.

More lines have been added at the phone center, she added.

Inland Power & Light Co. has trained an additional supervisor and cross-trained more employees, Assistant Manager Dave Clinton said.

He said the budget for clearing rights-of-way was increased 50 percent, allowing crews to catch up with potential hazards.

And some ties between substations have been strengthened, Clinton said.

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