NV Energy workers join relief effort for superstorm Sandy
Local power utility NV Energy has been enlisted to help with a massive power outage that is more than 2,500 miles away.
About 20 NV Energy linemen and 12 company line trucks and support vehicles left Nellis Air Force Base via military transport planes Sunday and Monday for New York’s Long Island. The crews will restore power to areas battered by superstorm Sandy.
"Being linemen, we’re always looking for the next place to go put up power lines and help people," said Paul Davis, an NV Energy crew foreman. "It’s just something you really don’t question. Most guys volunteer. We’ve probably got 80 guys who’d love to go. It’s the kind of trade we are. I know the guys are excited to get out there and help."
Power companies are so eager to help that they have an industry wide assistance plan, which is unusual among major businesses, NV Energy CEO Michael Yackira said.
The Edison Electric Institute, a trade group of shareholder-owned power utilities, developed its Electric Sector Mutual Assistance program decades ago to support companies that need help getting the lights back on. The institute’s regional mutual-assistance groups come together in emergencies to bolster restoration efforts in disaster zones.
The aid can be substantial. About 62,000 employees of electric utilities nationwide were on the East Coast late last week to help. And Yackira, a former Florida Power & Light executive, recalled how 30 utilities from across the country provided personnel reinforcements after 1992’s Hurricane Andrew, allowing crews to restore power in less than half of the time it would have taken without relief.
It’s not the first time NV Energy has offered crews during catastrophes. The company helped in 2010, when Pacific Gas & Electric needed assistance after wildfires in California.
Few, if any, industries have such aid agreements, Yackira said. It would be like ExxonMobil rushing company resources to the Gulf Coast to help BP during 2010’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
"We all feel as an industry that people need to have power restored as quickly and as safely as possible," Yackira said.
How NV Energy’s crews will restore power on Long Island isn’t settled. The Long Island Power Authority, the utility that requested help, has to lay out repair areas. Nor does NV Energy know how long its workers will be back east. It could be a couple of weeks, Yackira said.
Crews are doing disaster duty at no cost to Nevada ratepayers. The Long Island Power Authority covers expenses and salaries for as long as it needs the crews. As of Sunday, the authority said it had 5,200 linemen from across the country working to restore power to 370,000 customers still in the dark.
It’s a good time to help because the weather has cooled off, so there’s less likelihood of local power outages that can happen during summer’s peak use, Yackira said. That means NV Energy can more easily spare three of its 15 crews for disaster duty. Plus, the company volunteered just 1 percent of its vehicle fleet, so it has the resources to manage service hiccups in the next few weeks.
And if there is a major catastrophe that takes out local power, don’t fret: Southern Nevada would get the same industry wide assistance as the East Coast.
Contact reporter Jennifer Robison at jrobison@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4512. Follow @J_Robison1 on Twitter.