On the morning of Jan. 31, 2002, 305,000 of the 450,000 customers (68%) of Kansas City Power & Light (KCP&L, Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.) were without electric service. Approximately 200 of KCP&L's 550 (36%) metropolitan Kansas City area major circuits experienced an outage. Remarkably, by the end of the next day, crews had restored service to nearly 200,000 customers with essentially all customers back in service by the evening of Feb. 9, 2002.

Ice accumulations up to 2 inches (5 cm) on trees caused unprecedented damage. Even the most aggressive tree-trimming practices would not have prevented the types of catastrophic tree damage experienced in this storm.

The extreme amount of ice buildup caused large trees from well outside the utility's right-of-way (R/W) or easement to break, split and fall. As a result, KCP&L poles and conductors that normally are not affected by wind or ice storms were severely damaged.

How did KCP&L react to this 100-year storm? The utility relied upon its Storm Evaluation and Restoration Plan (SERP), which it created in 1984.

Storm Response Planning

SERP provides a structure for management of outside utility and contractor crews during major storm restoration efforts, including call center, public affairs, distribution control center (DCC), materials, fleet, security, telecommunications and information technology (IT) activities.

KCP&L maintains SERP on a year-round basis, performing annual reviews of the plan along with extensive training of the participants. KCP&L responded very quickly in identifying, evaluating, resourcing and executing its SERP plan.

SERP performed well, even at a scale beyond its original design. SERP is capable of managing an additional 200 outside electrical crews. However, during this storm, SERP stretched to accommodate 761 outside crews from 12 additional states — Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas.

Non-KCP&L Aid for Ice Storm 2002 Recovery

Utilities	Electric Contractors	Line Clearance Contractors
Ameren	Asplundh Tree Expert Co. (electric)	Asplundh Tree Expert Co.
Cinergy	Capital Electric Line Builders Inc.	Nelson Tree Service
Commonwealth Edison	Custom Lighting Services	Non-Electric Personnel
Empire District	Henkels & McCoy	Missouri Gas Energy
Entergy	Hooper Corp.
Indianapolis Power & Light	JF Electric Inc.
MidAmerican Energy	L.E. Meyers
Omaha Public Power District	NG Gilbert Corp.
Reliant Energy	PAR Electrical Contractors Inc.
Southern Indiana Gas and Electric	Sachs Electric Co.
Xcel Energy

SERP includes a Wire Down Team, which evaluates and clears problems that may create public safety issues by evaluating and, if necessary, de-energizing wires that may be public safety hazards — SERP Restoration 1^st Priority.

Managing Information Flow

Within the first day alone, the volume of customer contact — 63,000 calls (the equivalent of three weeks normal volume) — tested the limits of the call center systems and staff. The customer communications center uses an automated calling system with an Interactive Voice Response Unit (IVRU) system that provides the option of talking with a representative or using the automated feature to report outages.

Additionally, KCP&L uses Twenty-first Century Communications Inc., (Columbus, Ohio, U.S.) to provide automatic outage reporting. KCP&L activated an additional call center, a SERP feature manned by SERP volunteers, to handle both incoming calls and customer callback efforts. The extreme volume of incoming trouble tickets overloaded the main outage management computer system that handles outages, so a backup system took over the data collection task.

The storm-reporting system on KCP&L's Web site was another valuable tool in assisting restoration efforts and included updates of the storm-restoration efforts through the entire process. IT personnel added a map depicting outage areas and crew locations. During the storm, the site experienced nearly 350,000 visits, well above the 42,000 visits received during a normal period.

In any disaster of this magnitude, coordination with local governmental jurisdictions and entities is mandatory. Working with the mayor of Kansas City, KCP&L had staff on site at the city's Emergency Operations Center throughout the storm-restoration process. In the center and on the streets, KCP&L had a close working relationship with city, county and state governments, Red Cross and other community organizations. KCP&L contacted the commission staffs in Missouri and Kansas on a regular basis with updates of the restoration progress.

Recovery from this disaster required the coordinated efforts of every resource available to KCP&L:

• People — KCP&L crews working 16-hour shifts, joined by crews from 11 utilities and 12 contractors (a total of 2931), plus nearly 600 additional KCPL employees in support roles.

• Materials — effective and innovative sourcing and distribution.

• Experience of KCP&L management and associates, other utilities, contractors and community leaders.

Continuing Effort

With a disaster of this magnitude, KCP&L is thoroughly evaluating overall performance and investigating areas for future planning and performance improvements. Cleanup efforts continued through March with additional contractors supplementing KCP&L crews.

KCP&L worked with customers to “get things back to normal.” Due to significant cleanup work, KCP&L retained contract crews through February and March to make permanent repairs throughout the system. In many instances, temporary repairs were made to restore service as soon as possible.

While the initial objective in the storm-restoration process was to restore service to customers, the next stage of evaluation, cleanup and bringing the system back to normal is critical. Because of the severity of the storm damage and the need to be prepared for the summer storm season, the cleanup effort was KCP&L's highest priority. Contract crews remained to assist in this effort.

KCP&L followed up after the cleanup to evaluate the actual meter sites, verify meter/customer relations and identify situations that required further work. Normally, the utility reads meters remotely with an automated meter reading system, so it does not visit customer sites on a monthly basis. However, it was important to review the meter sites to identify safety issues, meter problems and any further work necessary to bring the customer site back to normal.

Much of the work needed to bring service back to a normal state required service on the customer side before KCP&L could make permanent repairs. The utility sent letters out to inform customers of their responsibilities.

While KCP&L surveyed system damage, the cities evaluated the damage to landscapes, structures and roadways; it was obvious that cleanup would be monumental. The city of Kansas City, Missouri, declared a state of emergency and both Kansas City and Missouri officials began seeking federal and state assistance.

During efforts to restore power, there were no lost time accidents and no electrical contact incidents by KCP&L employees or outside crews working on the restoration efforts. While the support of the customers was excellent and response of the KCP&L associates, contractors and supporting utilities was quick and strong, the utility would rather not have to exercise SERP like this for another 120 years.

Michael R. Cheek is superintendent of Operations & Maintenance in Distribution System Operations, Kansas City Power & Light Co. His experience covers all phases of operations, construction and maintenance, including work management and storm restoration. He earned the BSEE degree from the University of Missouri-Rolla (Rolla, Missouri, U.S.) and the MBA from Webster University (St. Louis, Missouri). Cheek is a professional engineer registered in Missouri and Wisconsin.

Chronology of Events

Tuesday, January 29: Weather conditions include freezing drizzle, followed by a freezing rain and sleet mixture. Early in the morning, KCP&L prepares for a possible severe storm coming into the area by notifying personnel to begin storm preparations. The utility increases its crew numbers during the evening and midnight shifts, and calls local contractors to determine availability of additional crews.

Wednesday, January 30: In the early morning, a small amount of ice builds and coats trees. The WeatherData weather service forecasts the precipitation will turn to snow by late morning with ice accumulations tapering. However, during mid-morning to mid-afternoon, freezing rain continues and ice accumulations increase. The major circuit monitoring (SCADA) system indicates a growing number of outages. Customers report major outages across the KCP&L service area. A designated utility contact person notifies cities of worsening conditions. The call center supervisor holds all representatives past normal shift time.

As outages escalate, the utility contacts local contractors to request every available lineman. Around 4 p.m., KCP&L management implements Storm Evaluation and Restoriation Plan (SERP).

By 4 p.m., KCP&L has 20,000 customer outages. At 5 p.m., the Reception, Staging and Integration (RSI) team begins calling outside utilities and contractors to add an additional 300 crews. SERP contacts Wire Down Team to prepare for next-day duty. Outages double, with 18 12-kV circuit outages by 6 p.m. Outages double to 80,000 by 9 p.m. with 48 circuit outages. Ice continues to accumulate with 1 inch (2.5 cm) of freezing rain continuing to fall. Overnight, a total of 196 lockouts occur and customer outages reach 305,000. The call center registers more than 76,000 customer calls. KCP&L operations personnel and local contractors work throughout the night to restore circuit outages — SERP Restoration 2^nd Priority.

Thursday morning, January 31: KCP&L fully implements SERP. Six teams comprised of KCP&L management employees form to manage the restoration efforts. Each team manages 50 to 60 electrical crews and 35 to 40 tree crews. About 80 KCP&L crews (172 linemen) and 21 contract crews (54 linemen) work to restore power. By 7 a.m., crews restore power to 35,000 customers and re-energize 22 circuits. Crews continue to restore power to major circuits.

Mayor Kay Barnes of Kansas City, Missouri, and KCP&L President of Delivery Bill Downey hold first press conference at 4 p.m.

Friday, February 1: Foreign (non-KCP&L) crews begin arriving, although many do not arrive until late afternoon or early evening. With these new arrivals, the total number of crews grows to 447 outside utility and contractor crews and 314 outside tree crews in addition to the 200 KCP&L and local contract crews. Eleven utilities and 10 contractors from 16 states participate in the restoration efforts. The total number of people swells to 2931, including 468 employees and local contract crews and 2463 foreign crew personnel.

Upper management assigns 600 additional KCP&L employees to the SERP team for support. These employees are from non-construction areas of the utility, such as Environmental Services, Power Plants, Fleet Services Administration, Research and Forecasting, Plant Services, Power Sales & Services, Energy Resources Management, Corporate Development, Marketing Communications, General Accounting, Payroll, Corporate Budgets, Corporate Governance, Audit Services, Fuels, Law and Compensation & Benefits.

A second additional call center opens to handle overflow from the main call center. Missouri Governor Bob Holden, Mayor Barnes, and KCP&L CEO Bernie Beaudoin tour the storm devastation.

A citywide emergency command center opens to consolidate communication with local government, fire, police and utility officials.

Saturday, February 2: The six SERP teams reach full-staffing levels and each works in its assigned area. Additional foreign crews become available and a seventh SERP team forms.

Monday, February 4: Five “Sweep Teams” form and revisit areas to reconnect customers still without power after the initial restoration efforts. Work progresses throughout the week with more than 3500 personnel dedicated to restoring electric service.

Saturday, February 9: In the evening, KCP&L releases most of the foreign utility crews, contractors and outside tree crews.