Recent Posts

When emergencies strike, utility senior leaders must demonstrate solid management practices to efficiently and effectively guide the restoration process. Unfortunately, this reality sometimes [...]

It boggles the mind how subjective many utilities’ storm activation decisions can be.  I simply do not agree with companies that leave these decisions open to widespread interpretation or [...]

When you think about emergency planning, the role of human resources (HR) may not be the first thing that comes to mind.  After all, why think about emergency preparedness HR policies when there [...]

One of the most important things – if not the most important thing – electric utilities can do to minimize restoration times is to find ways to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their [...]

Outage management systems (OMS) have become standard for U.S. electric utilities.  These systems have historically been built either in-house or by deploying a third party solution. At its core, [...]

The notion of lineman safety is certainly not new within the utility industry.  It’s literally the #1 stated goal of any electric utility worth its salt, and it is a particularly important [...]

“What are we talking about? We’re talking about practice, man.  I mean, how silly is that?” Allen Iverson, May 7, 2002 Emergency drills are practice.  While I’m not so sure about the [...]

When outages happen, utility liaison personnel really have a lot of walking to do – as in walking the tightrope, walking a fine line, walking on eggshells, or, as it may sometimes seem, walking [...]

The other day I was babysitting my 2-year old grandson when he yelled from across the room that he had a problem. Well, by the time he was within 10 feet of me, I knew exactly what the problem [...]

The trouble with weather forecasting is that it’s right too often for us to ignore it and wrong too often for us to rely on it. ~ Patrick Young Weather prediction models? Ha! Sometimes I [...]