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Posted By IAMU,
Wednesday, October 5, 2022
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Public power
utility crews from various parts of the country that have deployed to
Florida are hard at work helping to restore power to customers in the
state in the wake of Hurricane Ian.
Ian made its initial landfall near Port Charlotte,
Fla., as a category 4 hurricane on September 28 and the Department of
Energy on Oct. 2 reported that
fewer than one million customer outages remain across all states
affected by Hurricane Ian. There were approximately 872,000 customer
outages in Florida, 33,000 outages in North Carolina, 11,000 in
Virginia, and 3,000 in South Carolina as of 8:00 AM EDT, October 2.
Outages in Florida are down approximately 68% from the peak on September
29.
“Devastation caused by Hurricane Ian left more than
2.6 million homes and businesses in Florida without power," said Amy
Zubaly, Executive Director, Florida Municipal Electric Association (FMEA), on Sept. 30.
"Twenty-two of Florida’s 33 public power utilities
were impacted with peak outages reaching 212,344 customers. As of 3 p.m.
today, and within 48 hours of Hurricane Ian’s landfall, Florida public
power utilities restored power to more than 61 percent of customers who
experienced outages. This is significant progress given the extent of
the damage to the system, localized flooding hampering restoration
efforts, and extreme wind conditions."
She said
Florida public power mobilized a team of more than 750 line resources
from 125 utilities in 22 states to assist with restoration efforts.
"Crews have been working around the clock to restore power to Florida’s
public power communities and will continue to work tirelessly until the
remaining 82,108 public power customers are back online." Read more here.
Tags:
APPA
Hurricane Ian
Mutual Aid
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Posted By IAMU,
Wednesday, September 4, 2019
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As the country continues to watch the path of Hurricane Dorian, the Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities (IAMU) continues to participate in daily conference calls through the American Public Power Association’s Mutual Aid Working Group. Municipal electric utilities across Florida and other parts of the Southeast put out a call for mutual aid ahead of the impending storm, and IAMU has members on stand-by to deploy if help is needed.
The Iowa crews that offered to respond with eight total electric lineworkers and equipment were from the following systems:
- Sioux Center Municipal Utilities
- Sibley Municipal Utilities
- Muscatine Power and Water
- Eldridge Electric Utility
IAMU and the volunteering utilities will continue to monitor the storm and deploy if need be. If no assistance is needed, the volunteering utilities will eventually be released.
We are still early in the hurricane season. There likely will be more events for which IAMU will reach out to members, asking for assistance.
Tags:
APPA
Hurricane Dorian
Mutual Aid
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Posted By IAMU,
Tuesday, August 27, 2019
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The American Public Gas Association (APGA) now offers a mutual aid program for municipal natural gas systems to provide and receive assistance from program participants around the country in the event of a disaster or emergency situation.
The APGA Mutual Aid Program supplements the Iowa Mutual Aid System, allowing other utilities from around the country to help in Iowa when needed and allowing for Iowa utilities to help out in other areas of the country.
Participation in the program is voluntary, but APGA and IAMU encourage as many members as possible to sign the Mutual Aid Agreement form to create a robust and effective nationwide mutual aid program. If your utility has already signed the Iowa Mutual Aid Agreement, your utility must ALSO sign the APGA agreement to be able to participate in the national program. If your municipal natural gas system would like to participate, the Mutual Aid Agreement form needs to be signed by the designated point of contact for the program. The forms should then be mailed or faxed to APGA or scanned and emailed directly to scook@apga.org.
In the event of an emergency, a utility can call for aid by sending a Request for Aid (RFA) form to APGA. APGA staff would identify potential matches based on what the system is requesting and then put the two (or more) systems in contact with each other. After the match has been made, the requesting and responding systems coordinate the logistics of the relief until completion.
The APGA Mutual Aid program was formally approved by the APGA Board of Directors in May 2019 and was developed with input from the APGA Operations & Safety Committee and APGA’s Mutual Aid Task Group, including IAMU. The program guidelines aim to allow as close to 100% participation from APGA members
as possible.
The final agreement addresses concerns brought forward by APGA membership, including indemnification, workers compensation, and Operator Qualification.
- Indemnification - The APGA Mutual Aid Agreement states that the Requesting System indemnifies Responding Systems “to the full extent permitted by law, but without waiving and subject to all defenses including all constitutional, statutory and common law immunities and limits of liability, to release, indemnify, defend and hold harmless the Responding System...”
- Workers Compensation - The APGA Mutual Aid Agreement maintains that “At all times, employees of a Responding System continue to be employees of the Responding System and are not ever deemed to be employees of a Requesting System.” The agreement states that the Requesting System will compensate the Responding System’s employees’ “wages and salaries for paid time spent in Requesting System’s service area and paid time during travel to and from such service area, plus Responding System’s standard payable additives to cover all employee benefits and allowances.”
- Operator Qualification - The APGA Mutual Aid Agreement puts the onus on the Requesting System to ensure that those working on their system are Operator Qualified. It states that the “Requesting System must specify in their request for aid what tasks are covered tasks per 49 CFR 192 subpart N. The Requesting System receiving personnel pursuant is required to confirm that Responding Company personnel’s knowledge, skills and ability are consistent with Requesting Company’s needs.
If your municipal natural gas utility has any questions about the APGA Mutual Aid Program, contact APGA staff at (202) 464-2742 or by email at scook@apga.org or visit www.apga.org/mutual-aid.
Tags:
APGA
Gas
Mutual Aid
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Posted By IAMU,
Tuesday, April 16, 2019
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When members need help, they know they can count on colleagues from around the state. It’s the power of Mutual Aid (MA).
IAMU Director of Member Services Dave Hraha was contacted by Brad Willemssen, Electric Superintendent from City of Sibley, last Thursday morning at 5:09 a.m. At that time, he was calling in with 45 poles down on their rural line to Bigelow. More poles went down during the event.
Hraha then contacted Roger Morris, Spencer Municipal Utilities Electric Manager and IAMU MA Primary Coordinator in Region 1, and John Bilsten, Algona Municipal Utilities General Manger and Secondary Coordinator in Region 1, along with Rod Vitchum, Algona Electric Line Superintendent. Morris and Vitchum led the response.
Those members that assisted included:
- Spencer
- Algona
- Sioux Center
- Sergeant Bluff
- Hartley
- Alta
- Aurelia
- Webster City
- Atlantic (equipment)\
- Orange City (stand-by)
Power was restored Saturday night.
“Thank you cannot be said enough,” Willemssen wrote in an email. “Everyone worked hard to get it done. Crews took different tasks on the project and worked together well. It is obvious that the Mutual Aid program is very organized by how smooth everything went.”
 
 
Tags:
Mutual Aid
Sibley Municipal Utilities
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Posted By IAMU,
Thursday, July 19, 2018
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IAMU has updated the IAMU Mutual Aid Program book (Revision June 2018). Please print it and/or save it electronically for your use during a Mutual Aid (MA) event. Note that several regions have new Primary and/or Secondary Coordinators. We will be offering hard copies of the MA booklet at face-to-face meeting throughout the year.
We have this MA booklet on our IAMU website. Click:
https://cdn.ymaws.com/…/resource/resmgr/…/iamu_ma_binder.pdf
We have several MA regions with new Primary or Secondary Coordinators, so please print off booklets now so you have the correct phone numbers to call during a MA event.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Change to our IAMU Connect (our website mutual aid search tool) on the IAMU website. Unfortunately, the IAMU Connect MA tool is discontinuing. The service provider for this tool was recently purchased and has decided mutual aid will not be part of their business model. IAMU will receive all the data from the old company, and we are trying to figure out our next move forward -- create our own system or another solution.
If you have any questions, please reach out to Dave Hraha, Director of Member Services, 515.289.1999, dhraha@iamu.org
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Mutual Aid
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