Public Power - November 2008 - (Page 42)

Earthquake: The Hidden Disaster during earthquakes, which is the inability of the soil to hold whatever is on it—almost a quicksand effect. “This would make generating stations, substations, transmission towers and distribution poles subject to damage or even collapse,” Wilkinson said. His biggest concern related to utilities is that a powerful earthquake could compromise the national grid, in that it could affect areas far outside of the New Madrid zone, including the East Coast, and even into Canada. Furthermore, many of the major natural gas pipelines running from Texas and the Gulf of Mexico to the Northeast run through the middle of the New Madrid Seismic Zone. A major earthquake could disrupt power to that area in another way. “There are pumping stations every few miles,” he said. “A lot of them are remotely controlled. There are shut-off valves every mile or so. However, how well they would perform in an earthquake is unknown.” If the power system and communication systems are down, it may not be possible to shut them down remotely. Wilkinson’s group has had some planning initiatives, but it has been difficult to get utilities in the region to participate, he said. “Memphis Light, Gas & Water participated in at least one,” he said. “However, we need more involvement from utilities.” The Central United States Earthquake Consortium needs to know what utilities’ plans are. The consortium is trying to work with Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator and Tennessee Valley Authority. “They have some extensive modeling capabilities, such as what would happen if a certain plant or substation goes down, and how things can be rerouted in the grid.” This kind of information would be immensely valuable to the consortium as it works to develop a regional earthquake response plan. According to Callen Hays, crisis management coordinator for the Memphis Light, Gas & Water Division, the utility’s Water, Engineering & Operations Department has taken the lead in recognizing the New Madrid Seismic Zone as a real threat to the system. WE BURN IT AT BOTH ENDS. THAT MEANS YOU DON’T HAVE TO. With POWER, rest assured that your project is getting done and done right. Sure, all projects have risks, but we identify and manage those risks with a proven, project-driven approach. www.powereng.com OVERHEAD & UNDERGROUND TRANSMISSION SUBSTATIONS | CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT ROUTING & SITING | ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS STUDIES | TESTING & COMMISSIONING GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS | UTILITY AUTOMATION | GAS TURBINE PLANT DESIGN COAL & SOLID FUEL PLANTS | RENEWABLE POWER | TELECOMMUNICATION SYSTEMS “You can go awhile without electricity, but you can’t go very long without drinking water,” said Hays. Hence, MLGW’s first focus was on water. In 1989, Memphis began seeking Federal Emergency Management Agency grants for retrofitting its pumping stations for seismic activity. The utility pumps all of its water out of underground aquifers. The utility has been awarded about $4 million in federal money so far to retrofit four of its eight pumping stations, and it has a grant application in the works to try to retrofit another one. In terms of gas, Memphis started a project to retrofit its cast iron gas system. “This would also help us out if an earthquake occurred,” said Hays. “Since 1991, we have spent about $48 million to replace about 200 miles of cast iron gas pipe.” In the last couple of years, the utility began focusing on the electric system, too. It hopes to get grants to retrofit this. These initiatives came after the utility examined its success and failings after a series of windstorms in 2003, which resulted in power outages for more than 300,000 customers. Central to these reforms have been the creation of Hays’ position, ensuring that someone is dedicated to thinking about crisis situations, and building of an emergency operations center, where personnel involved can gather during a disaster and have the resources they need. The same building that houses the emergency operations center holds all of the utility’s call centers, IT, emergency operations, hookups for laptops, five large-screen TVs, customer outage data, and 36 dedicated phone lines. The building is resistant to seismic activity and designed to withstand a 7.0 earthquake. There are six tables for crisis team members: electricity, water, gas, logistics, support, and finance. The utility also has tried to strengthen its mutual-aid agreements. “At the time of [the 2003 windstorms] we had a lot of east-west mutual-aid agreements, rather than northsouth,” said Hays. “Since weather tends to travel west to east, we realized we needed some north-south agreements.” In addition, the utility is working on seeking agreements with utilities that would be outside of the impact zone of an earthquake. Memphis tries to remind customers conPUBLIC POWER 42 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2008 http://www.powereng.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Public Power - November 2008

Public Power - November 2008 Contents Perspective 10 Questions Capturing Knowledge Before It Retires Jackson’s GIS Search Keeping a Job Journal Japan Tackles the Kyoto Protocol Getting to 20 by 10 Damless Hydro Power Earthquake: The Hidden Disaster For Engineers Safety For Governing Boards DEED Hometown Connections Parting Shot

Public Power - November 2008

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