Public Power - November 2008 - (Page 44)

Earthquake: The Hidden Disaster the office for emergency operations,” said Edward Throop, general manager. “We would also man the water plants and wastewater plants, as well as the substations and transmission facilities.” Since the plan was developed, the utility has implemented construction practices designed to protect local infrastructure from earthquake damage. Substation structures and equipment, water towers, and ground storage tanks are designed and built to meet seismic zone standards. Sikeston has three portable gas-powered generators that can be used in the office, warehouse and water plant facilities. “We also have two electrical feeds into the city, one from the south and one from the west, in case our plant would go down,” Throop said. The utility has mutual-aid agreements with other utilities through the Missouri Joint Municipal Electric Utility Commission. Poplar Bluff Municipal Utilities & City Cable in Missouri has built its new water towers to seismic standards. “In 1991, we updated our emergency plan for earthquake preparedness. Through this plan we have constructed our main primary lines above ground with subdivisions and single-phase taps being placed underground,” said William Bach, PBMUCC general manager. If a large earthquake occurred, Bach believes it would be relatively easy to restore power. The utility has responded quickly when ice storms and other disasters have caused outages, he said. The water and sewer services would pose the biggest problem because the underground pipes would rupture. “We have helped so many other utilities during ice storms and hurricanes with electric service restoration,” he said. “If we have an earthquake, we may have to ask other utilities to send water and sewer crews” The utility has a peaking plant with about 400,000 gallons of diesel on site. If natural gas were no longer available, the plant could run on diesel. If the line between the tank and the facility ruptured, the utility has a means of isolating it and pumping oil through a transfer hose. “We Looking to procure capacity, power or natural gas? Looking to sell excess? Need to meet a Renewable Portfolio Standard? For municipalities, joint action agencies, and others, energy procurement is all about transparency, price, and compliance. Enter World Energy. Our award-winning online exchanges provide market intelligence and create price transparency for all participants, enabling our customers to transact with confidence and get the best possible price for traditional and renewable power. Visit us at www.worldenergy.com to view our exchanges in action and learn more. World Energy is publically traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX): XWE (800) 578-0718 wouldn’t be able to keep the whole town running, but we could cover emergency services, such as hospitals, Bach said.“ The West—While earthquake planning and preparedness is somewhat new to utilities in the Midwest, it is a way of life for utilities in the West. California utilities plan for and respond to earthquake damage more than any other type of disaster. According to Bill Carnahan, executive director of the Southern California Public Power Authority in Pasadena, communities with public power utilities actually have an advantage over communities served by investor-owned and cooperative utilities when it comes to natural disasters. Prior to accepting his current position, Carnahan was the utilities director at Riverside, Calif. “Most utilities tend to make plans based on protecting and then ultimately restoring their system after a disaster,” he said. For a public power utility, though, the first priority would be dealing with other more serious emergencies in the community. “In Riverside, we always figured it would be a fair amount of time before our crews were out putting power lines back up,” he said. “Most of our crews and heavy equipment would probably be involved in rescue operations under the guidance of the fire department and/or police department.” In Riverside, procedures called for the utility to report to whoever was in charge of the emergency operations center. While restoring power to the general public may be a secondary priority, it is still a priority. “The city gets to decide how, when and where to send crews and equipment,” he said. “If you’re served by a non-public power utility, which serves a number of cities and a wider area, they decide when and where they will start restoring power.” Southern California Public Power Authority has a transmission and distribution emergency operations committee that makes sure it has mutual-aid agreements in place. “After Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf, we went through an exercise here on disaster,” said Carnahan. “We also do benchmarking studies and best practices in terms of maintenance, construction, reliability, etc.” All of the joint action agency’s member utilities are named in the studies, PUBLIC POWER 44 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2008 http://www.worldenergy.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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