The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink About14 Recent Storm Event Operationsenda Item # To: Board of Directors From: Stephen Hollabaugh Date: January 19, 2017 Subject: Discussion Regarding Recent Storm Event Operations 1. WHY THIS MATTER IS BEFORE THE BOARD 14 This is an informational item regarding the January storm events and outages. 2. HISTORY The greater Truckee community has had large storm events throughout history. These storm events put stress on roadways, snow removal operations, and utiltiy operations umongst other areas of concern. 3. NEW INFORMATION The greater Truckee community has been responding to a series of severe winter storms and blizzards that have caused power outages, traffic delays, school closures, falling trees and flooding. This latest series of storms started on January 4t" and went with only a small break till Thursday night, January 12t". The blizzard that peaked this Tuesday and Wednesday was particularly challenging as a large number of trees fell, roads became impassible, and access to our equipment was not possible or requirement significant effort. Over the 8 plus day time -period to today, the District has experienced 46,209 customer interruptions The most severe days were January 4t" where 4,837 customers were affected, January 7t"1 6,569 customers were affected, and January 10t" where all of the District's 13,249 customers were affected when NV Energy's transmission lines were down from 9:41 p.m. to 11:49 a.m. the next morning. In total, the District responded to 2,734 outage calls from customers regarding 363 total outage incidents. The District's electric crews have been working day and night to remove trees and repair damage to our distribution system. All -in -all, the electric distribution system's protection and safety equipment performed admirably. The District's administrative staff, along with support from all District employees, have been working long hours responding to thousands of calls and help coordinate the efforts of the crews. The District received media inquiries from local, state, and national outlets while communicating closely with other local agencies and partners. Below is a chronology of the storms: Part 1: The Atmospheric River! (Wednesday, January 4t" to Monday, January 9t") • This storm stared with some significant snowfall, a small break on Friday, and then 2 plus days of torrential rain (over 10" of rain in some areas). The rain on snow event caused significant snow shedding on our power lines (line slap) along significant tree damage. • The District began experiencing outages on Wednesday, I when 4,837 customers (out of 13,249) were out of power with an average outage time of a little over two hours. On Sunday, Jan.8, there were 6,569 customers out of power with an average outage time of a little over 40 minutes. Thanks to the valiant efforts of the electric crews, the District was able to restore power to all customers by Monday morning, Jan. 9 (Liberty Utilities and PG&E still had significant outages on -going). Part 2: The Blizzard! (Tuesday, January 10t" -Friday, January 13t") • The snow started falling on Monday but the blizzard really hit on Tuesday and Wednesday. The entire District received a minimum of 3-5 feet of snow and some of the higher elevations received 10 plus feet. A brief rise in snow levels on Tuesday made for some very wet, icy, and heavy snow which stuck to trees, power lines, and everything else. There was widespread tree damage throughout the District with unofficial estimates in the thousands. Many damaged the District's electric distribution system along with secondary power to homes. Roads became impassible due to downed trees, power lines, and massive amounts of snow. • The District was experiencing localized outages on Tuesday and had just restored power to a larger outage near Donner Lake when at approximately 9:30p.m. the District lost transmission power from NV Energy due to a large tree falling across their lines near Coachland. At this point all 13, 239 electric customers were without power (as well as all of Liberty Utilities customers). NV Energy was able to restore power to the District a little before noon on Wednesday. Note: It should be noted that, before the NV Energy transmission power went down, there was a social medial storm that day (mostly Facebook and Nextdoor Tahoe Donner) that was caused, in part, by Liberty Utilities telling the school district that they had lost two of their three transmission sources (NV Energy 2nd feed which was out previously and the PG&E feed which was taken out by the big mud -slide that close 1-80). These are the same transmission lines that feed the District. There was also a social medial post "from a friend of a friend who works at the PUD" with the same information and saying that, if we lose the last transmission line, we would be out of power for many days. As noted above, we did lose that last line but were back up in a little over 12 hours. • While the NV Energy transmission line was down, the District's crews worked overnight to repair the damage from the existing outages. In the meantime, the storm waged on overnight and more damage occurred. • With NV Energy transmission power restored, the District jumped into action to bring up the substations and individual circuits. Thanks in part to the work the night before, the District was able to bring up a majority of our customers within an hour of receiving transmission power. There were, however, significant existing and new outages that remained. • By Wednesday night, the District was able to restore power to all but 2,500 customers. Crews worked throughout the night and by morning had restored power to all but 700 customers Thursday morning (with the main outage being 350 customer in Prosser Lakeview along with an isolated outage in the Gateway neighborhood which included the Hospitals daycare facility which they needed to get their employees back to work and which was brought up by 7:00 p.m.). The customer count was nearing 600 by Thursday afternoon when it started to snow again. • It only snowed 4-8" on Thursday afternoon/evening but with the significant amount of snow still in the trees, the District experienced additional damage to our facilities. The main issue was a large tree that feel on Northwoods between Donner Pass Road and Bullpine at 5:00 p.m.. This took out all three of our primary lines and also closed Northwoods for a couple of hours. The District lost power to a portion of Tahoe Donner but was able, through switching, to bring almost everyone back in a couple of hours. There was also another outage in the Greys Crossing/Prosser Dam Road area in the middle of the night due tree on our primary lines. • By Friday morning, the District now had almost 1,700 customers out of power including the 600 customers who have been out of power since at least Tuesday night. The District did issue a mutual aid request earlier in the week and have received help from Roseville Electric who sent a crew which arrived on Wednesday and a crew from Plumas Sierra Rural Electric which is scheduled to arrive today. • The District resolved the new Gray's Crossing/Prosser Dam Road outage along with most of the on -going Prosser Lakeview outages by the end of Friday. The smaller but long-term incidents, close to a 100 homes without power due to damaae to their secondary power feed. The District's electric utility performed exemplary during this historic series of storm and our equipment, crews, and procedures worked well. It is important to note that all of our customers were out of power for at least one night and some have been out for over a week. There have been complaints and frustrations but, for the most part, our community has rallied to respond to the crisis. There have been dozens of customers calling, e-mailing, or coming into the office in person to praise the District and our employees for the heroic efforts to restore power. This includes a steady stream of home baked cookies and treats being dropped off at the main office in appreciation every day. 4. FISCAL IMPACT The fiscal impact of these particular series of storms has yet to be determined. 5. RECOMMENDATION Stephen Hollabaugh Assistant General Manager Michael D. Holley General Manager