For next big storm, PPL promises better communications

FROM THE MORNING CALL

Reacting to two storm-related crises this year, PPL Electric Utilities has submitted the state a plan the company says will make it easier for customers to report power outages during a major storm.

Among PPL's proposals are 20 percent more phone lines, an increase in PPL service representatives answering the phones, and easier ways to reach the company through the Internet in an emergency.


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The multimillion-dollar proposals, submitted recently to the state Public Utility Commission, are an answer to the public frustration with the many hours or many days without electricity after the remnants of Hurricane Irene in late August and the snowstorm in late October.

"We certainly heard from customers," PPL spokesman Michael Wood said Tuesday. "The remarks from customers, the complimentary emails, far outweighed the critical ones. But we sure heard the complaints that customers couldn't reach us. This is really a response to that."

Wood said the outage-reporting improvements are not required, but the PUC has made it clear it is paying attention to what utilities do to better prepare for major storms.

In addition to the new phone lines, PPL says it will lease extra phone capacity during high-volume call periods, improve the computerized voice system on its phones, and refine its estimates of when lost power will be restored.

The utility plans to offer new ways to report outages on smartphones and other Internet links, and it proposes to issue power status updates through Twitter, Facebook and other media.

Wood said the changes will help PPL repair crews as well as PPL customers.

"Even with automated meters, we want to hear from customers so that we have a true picture of how much damage is out there and how many customers are without power," he said.

"With the automated meters, we perform a pinging operation to find outages," Wood said. "That is a feature of the system. The more features you use during the early part of the storm, you're tying up critical parts of the system that are needed to analyze trouble and allow the operators to work on restoration."

David G. DeCampli, president of PPL Electric Utilities, committed to the improvements after the October snowstorm, when the company had far more phone calls than it could handle, Wood said.

"We saw call volumes like never before," Wood said. "On a typical weekday, we have call volumes of 5,000 to 10,000. During the [Irene and snow] storms, we had peak hours greater than 100,000, and 1.2 million calls during each of the two events.

"We handled more calls in two weeks than in all of 2010."

Some of the items in the PPL plan already are being implemented, Wood said. Others will be in place by the end of the year, and the rest are targeted for completion in early 2012.

After the remnants of Hurricane Irene swept through eastern Pennsylvania on Aug. 27 and 28, about 428,000 PPL customers lost power.

The Oct. 28-29 snowstorm cut power to 388,000 PPL customers, and nearly half of them were in the Lehigh Valley. Nearly 10,000 in the Lehigh Valley had no electricity for six days after the snow.

http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-ppl-storm-outage-plan-20111129,0,6060441.story