The worst nightmare of any electric distribution company employee is to be in the path of a major storm system that has the potential to inflict significant damage to the network infrastructure. Many distribution companies in North America operate in geographic areas that are prone to severe storm conditions, whether they are hurricanes, ice storms, blizzards, tornados, etc. The frequency and distribution (impact areas) of these storms is not spread evenly. In the recent past it appears that some geographic areas have been hit with a greater frequency than others. Within the past 3-4 years the Gulf of Mexico facing states of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi as well as North Carolina, on the Atlantic coast, have been hit with more hurricanes than Florida. Some companies, such as Entergy, have accumulated significant storm experience over the past 5-10 years while other companies like TECO have had relatively little storm exposure. When the summer storm season begins it is impossible to predict with certainty which geographic areas will be impacted and to what extent. The only certainty is that storms will develop and they will hit an area causing significant damage to the local infrastructure. Typically a company will experience a single storm season such as the summer or winter. However, there are a number of companies whose service territory is sufficiently large and diverse where they experience a continuous 12 month storm season. In the winter they are prone to ice storms and in the summer and fall, tropical storms. This places a significant burden on the management teams of those companies to ensure operational readiness. For companies with relatively little recent storm exposure the greater challenge is in assessing the risk and making the appropriate investment in training, processes/procedures and systems to be prepared.
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