PREPA goes Mobile – Field Crew Enlightenment
Hurricane Georges
On September 20-22, 1998 Hurricane Georges crossed Puerto Rico.
By September 24 the entire commonwealth of Puerto Rico was
declared a disaster area requiring emergency and permanent public
assistance for all categories. The Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) provided assistance to relieve cash flow problems
experienced by PREPA, due to the high expenses incurred during
that period.
Table 2: Hurricane Georges
(The values are expressed in Millions)
During the first five days of the storm, PREPA did not deliver
energy to customers. Although the generation and transmission
systems did not suffer major damages, the distribution system was
badly affected, causing major revenue losses from non-delivered
energy. To repair the network, PREPA had to utilize crews from
other utility companies, transport transmission structures to
rural areas by helicopter, provide ice to some critical
customers, hire local contractors, build temporary roads to
access assets in rural areas, in addition to other extraordinary
activities. On the administrative side, one of PREPA’s major
challenges was to ensure that all the work related to network
restoration was properly accounted for in order to justify the
costs to FEMA. The second major challenge was to prove to FEMA
what facilities existed in the ground before the hurricane.
Without accurate and reliable information that could be validated
by FEMA inspectors, FEMA would not reimburse PREPA for the repair
costs.
Pre-hurricane work
Prior to the hurricane hitting the island, PREPA has only a
couple of days to prepare. There is not much fieldwork to be
done during this period but, administratively, PREPA prepares for
the hurricane according to its existing Emergency Plan. This
plan is elaborated by district and considers the need to create
Temporary Operation Centers, critical customers who need to be
restored quickly, materials to stock upfront, people to alert,
and the creation of appropriate charge accounts, among other
preparatory activities. District Engineers are responsible for
the execution of the Emergency Plan within each district.
Post-hurricane work
During the first 24 hours after the hurricane, PREPA must provide
to the commonwealth governor and all affected municipalities, a
damage estimate and the number of disconnected customers. This
estimate is high level and based on information gained from:
- Helicopter assessment along the transmission lines to detect
damages;
- Tripped breakers identified by the SCADA system;
- Tripped breakers identified by field crews after visits to
all substations;
- Customer outage calls.
At the same time, crews start repairing the network according to
the Emergency Plan – initially they restore critical customers.
As the emergency repair progresses, other crews inspect by
walking the entire network. As information is collected,
permanent repair work is designed and implemented. The permanent
repair work, in some cases, undoes the emergency repair work that
restored critical customers.
