Duke Energy’s incident command center – the utility’s headquarters during major storms – was operating at full throttle.
Hurricane Helene, a massive storm that first made landfall in the Gulf of Mexico, had done the unthinkable. The storm, at its worst classified as a Category 4 hurricane, meandered its way some 600 miles north to the mountainous region of Western North Carolina. Even after weakening to a tropical storm, Helene’s rain and wind triggered mudslides that wiped away entire towns while thrashing the power grid operated by Duke Energy. Nearly all its customers in Western North Carolina and Upstate South Carolina lost power.
Storm response is an all-hands-on-deck situation for utilities. Major storms often require the coordination of thousands of external resources, referred to within the industry as mutual aid, to restore power. But every storm is different and, to a degree, unpredictable— even larger utilities, like Duke Energy, that employ experienced meteorologists and utilize advanced forecasting tools are at the mercy of Mother Nature. There’s an element of organized chaos in every major storm event.
As Helene inflicted unimaginable destruction on Western North Carolina, including Asheville, the home of this reporter, Duke Energy’s incident command center went silent. A news report flashed on a muted television with scenes from Chimney Rock, a popular tourist destination and state park near Asheville, where floods swept homes and businesses into nearby Lake Lure.
Lee McKoy, Duke Energy’s emergency preparedness manager, is teary-eyed thinking back to the moment six weeks later. “The whole room got quiet,” McKoy remembers. “It made everything we do important.”
McKoy is the architect of Duke Energy’s mutual aid plan, working in the days leading up to the storm to acquire the resources needed to restore power as quickly and safely as possible. All told more than 25,000 personnel from Duke Energy and other utilities mobilized to Western North Carolina. Duke Energy established 36 base camps to house the lineworkers and vegetation management crews that answered the call for help, which doubled the utility’s previous record of 16.
It was the largest storm response effort in Duke Energy’s history— a stark point given the storm-tested utility serves large portions of Florida’s Gulf Coast region. The coordination was nothing short of a logistical triumph for Duke. Despite widespread damage and lengthy power outages, the utility was seemingly spared from the ridicule others have faced over storm preparation, communication shortcomings, and restoration timelines.
Scientists have long warned that climate change has increased the frequency and intensity of storms. But Helene’s toll in Asheville, a city more than 2,000 feet above sea level that was previously billed as a “climate haven”, raised the stakes. Duke Energy’s playbook could serve as a model for utilities coast-to-coast, especially for those less experienced with major storms.
Preparation and coordination: A moving target
Duke Energy has playbooks for every aspect of storm response, which are typically initiated five days ahead of a significant storm event. Forecasting software analyzes the potential impact of the storm on Duke Energy’s assets and suggests the resources needed to assess damage, remove vegetation, and restore power.
The first mutual assistance calls take place roughly 72 hours before the storm’s arrival, McKoy said. Working through Regional Mutual Assistance Groups (RMAGs), Duke Energy will alert neighboring utilities during an “impacted companies call” that an event requiring additional resources may occur. Utilities engaged in the RMAG have pre-existing contracts that dictate reimbursement levels. Since some utilities in the region may also be impacted by the storm, the RMAG holistically takes stock of the resources that may be at its disposal. Roughly 48 hours before the storm, Duke Energy will initiate its call for additional resources. If one RMAG runs out of available resources, they work on behalf of the utility to secure personnel from another (there are seven RMAGs in the U.S.).
But even the most advanced forecasting tools can miscalculate a storm’s track and impact. During Helene, Duke Energy’s storm response plan required near-constant adjustments. The typical cadence for RMAG member calls is twice per day, but McKoy found himself on the phone “every hour” to talk about resource availability.
“What we learned is that we have to work beyond the cadence and to ensure that we are operating as a team, functioning as a team, although we work for different companies,” McKoy said.
On-the-ground execution
Acquiring additional resources is only the first step. In the case of Hurricane Helene, Duke Energy then had to figure out where to feed thousands of utility workers. Forecasting becomes particularly important at this stage: Duke Energy will stage some resources in the impacted area and the rest in the periphery. Once the storm hits, they decide where to dispatch resources and whether additional help is needed.
Typically, Duke Energy will place mutual aid personnel in area hotels. That wasn’t an option for most during Helene since the region’s water system was destroyed by the storm. Out of necessity, Duke Energy stood up 36 base camps in a matter of days with more than 70% of utility workers staying in alternative housing, like trailers.
Early on, running the base camps proved challenging for Duke Energy and served as one of the primary lessons learned for Sam Spilman, the utility’s director of project management. Members of Duke Energy’s IT department were among those tapped to run the base camps, which was unfamiliar territory.
“That was probably the biggest hurdle,” Spilman told POWERGRID International. “How do you support all this infrastructure you’re putting out there with people who don’t have staging site knowledge? How do you run a small city?”
The teams leading base camp coordination caught on after a couple of days, Spilman said, but Duke Energy intends to train additional staff on executing that aspect of storm response. They’re also taking another look at how mutual aid resources are released back to their home territories, making sure to coordinate with neighboring utilities that may still be in need of support.
Communication
In any storm event, safety is the top priority, but communication isn’t far behind. There’s an unofficial mantra at Duke Energy, Spilman said, to “tell the truth as fast as you can.” Sometimes, that’s bad news. Other times, inaccuracies need to be corrected. But information saves lives.
Duke Energy vowed that most customers impacted by Helene in Western North Carolina and Upstate South Carolina would have power restored within a week. At the time, 904,000 customers were in the dark. But this “stake in the ground,” as Spilman characterized it, provided needed clarity to impacted customers.
“It’s human nature to avoid sharing bad information,” Spilman said. “But because we’ve been through so many storms and learned processes, communication has become so important to our culture.”
Spilman isn’t new to storm restoration. He has spent nearly four decades at Duke Energy and experienced many hurricanes along the way, including Hugo, Charlie, Ike, and Katrina. But even with all of the damage those storms inflicted, Helene stands alone.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Spilman said. “I will tell you, candidly, it hit us harder than we expected.”
For utility storm response leaders like Spilman and McKoy, the Atlantic hurricane season – June 1 to Nov. 30 – dictates much of their personal and professional lives. But catastrophic storms are no longer bound to coastlines or timelines.
“I’m about decided that Mother Nature doesn’t follow our calendars,” Spilman said.
