In a 14-hour span on April 27, 2011, Mother Nature delivered two brutal storms that unleashed 30 tornadoes in Alabama Power Co.'s service territory. At least 240 people lost their lives, making it the second-most deadly day of tornadoes in U.S. history. Damage to Alabama Power's electric system and infrastructure was unprecedented.

The storms moved across northern portions of central Alabama during early-morning hours. The first storm brought widespread damage from straight-line winds and isolated tornadoes. The second shattering wave followed in the afternoon with numerous supercell thunderstorms, which spawned violent tornadoes that devastated or damaged 44 cities served by the utility.

By 9 p.m., a peak number of 412,229 Alabama Power customers were in the dark. The utility's customer service representatives (CSRs), with help from CSRs at sister utility Georgia Power, answered 110,756 calls. The automatic voice response unit was also busy, taking another 290,952 calls, bringing the total number of storm calls to 401,708 from April 27 to May 1.

Hurricanes Ivan, Katrina and Opal caused more outages, but the April 27 storms brought down nearly seven times as many transmission structures and snapped almost twice as many distribution poles as Ivan. In many areas, the tremendous devastation meant the electrical system had to be completely rebuilt. At the height of restoration efforts, more than 10,000 personnel from 20 states were working to restore service.

To put the damage in perspective, in seven days, crews installed 6,000 distribution poles and more than 400 transmission structures, repaired or replaced eight damaged or destroyed substations, and replaced more than 4 million ft (1.2 million m) of wire — double the work to restore power after Ivan, which left 825,701 outages.

In the end, crews put up enough new wire to stretch from Birmingham, Alabama, to Washington, D.C., and enough poles to build a line from Alabama's northwest tip to the Gulf of Mexico. The work took seven days — two days faster than the restoration time for Ivan. By midnight on Wednesday, May 4, power was restored to all customers who were able to receive it — that is, those who still had a home or business intact after nature's lethal assault.

A Mighty Storm

On Monday morning, April 25, the National Weather Service (NWS) reported ominous storms were on the way, expected to reach Alabama by Wednesday. Alabama Power began monitoring the weather and making preparations. On Tuesday, April 26, because of the potential impacts to its electrical system, the utility activated its storm center in Birmingham, calling in a veteran force of power delivery employees trained to respond during restoration events.

As the hub for coordinating most activities during high-alert weather, the storm center is where personnel make analytical, strategic and tactical decisions for the operations, including acquisition and allocation of work crews, equipment and other resources. The team monitors the weather, which can significantly affect how decisions are made.

April 2011 had already been an active month for the utility. Four earlier storms (April 4, April 11, April 15 and April 20) had brought major outages and forced the utility to dip into its storm fund, tapped only when damage tops US$750,000 in operations and maintenance (O&M) expenses.

Armageddon of Weather Events

As the state's largest utility, Alabama Power has extensive plans and years of experience in quickly restoring power following storms and ensuring business continuity. The utility has many contacts with contractors, and as a member of the Southeastern Electric Exchange (SEE), it supports and receives help during urgent situations from other electric utilities through SEE's mutual assistance program.

Tracking the storm, the utility knew Florida would not be threatened and, by Tuesday evening, had mobilized contract line crews from across the Panhandle. Staging those crews in Birmingham, the utility called on its sister subsidiaries Georgia Power, Gulf Power and Mississippi Power, along with non-SEE resources.

Early Wednesday morning, the storm center team held lengthy regional conference calls with SEE mutual assistance companies to discuss resource needs, availability and the likely path of the severe storm. At 10 a.m., the storm center director spoke with NWS Chief Meteorologist Jim Stefkovich of the Birmingham office. At that time, Stefkovich's prediction was that an “Armageddon of weather events” was on the way.

With that sobering news, storm center personnel held more conference calls with the SEE in the afternoon. As a result of heavy pre-planning, Alabama Power was able to call in crews not only from the SEE, but also from electric utilities in regional mutual assistance groups to the north, which agreed to release resources to help.

Planning Turns to Action

From the moment the storms ended, Alabama Power power delivery employees began working 16-hour shifts. During the first night in the storm center, system control operators, engineers and managers worked closely to restore key substations through remote sectionalizing and switching. As damage reports flooded in, they worked full steam to support the utility's four territorial divisions that had been affected. The storm center and staging area teams, in constant contact with Alabama Power's distribution operations management and a wealth of support organizations, went to work gathering people, equipment and materials. To best deploy available assets, lines of communication were established between the forward logistical bases and the storm center for reporting and evaluating damages.

Power delivery crews and engineers immediately responded at the scenes to evaluate the destruction. Within the first 48 hours, more than 5,500 miles (8,851 km) of transmission lines were flown and evaluated. As with all widespread power interruptions, the utility evaluated power needs for critical infrastructure such as hospitals, emergency workers, shelters, water treatment plants and fire stations.

Communication was the key to a successful restoration. The Alabama Control Center, distribution operations centers and local linemen began the process by addressing how to quickly and safely restore service to the largest numbers, sectionalizing trouble and picking up customers. By using time-series analysis, trouble reporting systems and geographic information system data, the storm managers were able to best manage crew and support deployments.

Several of the utility's support organizations, comprised of logistics experts, went to work setting up staging areas with lodging, meals, shower and laundry facilities, along with fuel supplies for incoming crews and their trucks. Feeding, housing and lodging an additional 6,000-strong force, arriving en masse, required detailed planning and follow-through. The utility succeeded by using both typical and nontraditional lodging — armories, campsites, sleeping trailers and hotels.

Twelve crew and material staging sites were set up statewide, allowing Alabama Power employees and crews from out-of-state utilities to work safely in devastated areas. Up to 1,800 personnel worked from each staging area. The utility's security employees helped set up the staging areas and assisted with placement of workers' sleeping trailers and trucks. Security personnel policed staging areas to make sure they were protected, watching out for workers' safety and safeguarding millions of dollars of critical equipment and materials.

Employees from safety, disability management, materials services, fleet, information technology, SouthernLINC Wireless, corporate services and public relations also were crucial to carrying out the work.

Razor-Sharp Focus

With such devastation to Alabama Power's electric system spanning the entire state, the work became more than a restoration project, it turned into a reconstruction project.

Preliminary estimates put the utility's O&M costs, which involve repairs to existing facilities such as placing existing wire back on existing poles, at $40 million to $55 million. Capital costs, which involve the replacement of wires, snapped poles and substations, are expected to run between $180 million and $225 million. Labor costs are split between O&M and capital, depending on the work performed.

Crews worked safely, though downed trees, power lines and debris made traveling difficult as workers tried to reach devastated areas. Power delivery assessment teams were in each area as soon as it was safe, inspecting infrastructure by land and air, tallying needed materials and equipment. Mapping support teams — some working remotely from as far away as Pensacola, Florida — provided local area maps for navigation.

Many employees came to work even though they or their families lost homes or loved ones to the tragic storms. Alabama Power President and CEO Charles McCrary activated the utility's family services department, which helped 45 employees get on their feet and back to their jobs. Family services assisted employees by securing their damaged homes, providing a comfortable working situation.

Grid Takes a Big Hit

The utility's Western Division, headquartered in Tuscaloosa, took some of the hardest hits from EF4 and EF5 tornadoes, which stayed on the ground an extraordinary 180 miles (290 km), according to the NWS. The Tuscaloosa-based Kaul District Substation and Alberta City District Substation were destroyed. Western Division set up four staging areas to funnel work crews, who toiled from 6 a.m. until dark each day to restore power.

After the destruction, the utility had more transmission lines out than ever before. To restore power to the most customers as quickly as possible, the utility diverted power around storm-stricken areas when possible. Crews installed hundreds of sectionalizing devices, allowing electric load to be moved from one substation to another and not interrupt service for customers unaffected by the storms. Because it takes weeks to rebuild a substation, crews set up mobile substations until permanent rebuilds could be completed. Calm weather in the days immediately following also helped, allowing power to be brought in from other states to meet demand.

After the second wave of evening tornadoes flattened homes, about 950 personnel worked in the tremendously damaged areas of Blount County, as well as Pell City, Gadsden and Shoal Creek Valley in the utility's Eastern Division. In most storm situations, broken poles mark the former locations of power lines. In this occurrence, however, the tornadoes wiped out so much of the infrastructure that engineers were forced to use digitized GPS maps to find where lines once existed. The lines were then staked and built from scratch. Birmingham and the Eastern Division also were hit hard by EF4 and EF5 tornadoes, while the Southern Division, in the south-central section of the state, sustained some severe damage from isolated, violent tornadoes.

An Enduring Message of Hope

By May 26, one month after the storms, Alabama Power had essentially completed repairs to its transmission and distribution systems, except for the two destroyed substations in the Tuscaloosa area that have to be completely rebuilt. Despite the tremendous progress, some work will likely continue for many months, because the utility is still evaluating its electrical equipment to determine whether any damage had gone undetected.

Meanwhile, thousands of Alabama Power employees continue to restore hope in communities where rebuilding is under way. All 10 chapters of the Alabama Power Service Organization, made up of utility volunteers, initiated emergency programs within days of the storms to support their neighbors and help charitable agencies such as the American Red Cross and Salvation Army with their efforts.

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Pam Boyd (poboyd@southernco.com) is a power delivery planning manager and has worked at Alabama Power for 20 years. She is the director of the storm center at corporate headquarters in Birmingham, Alabama. Boyd oversees distribution planning, network planning, 44-kV planning, joint use, reliability and capital budgeting departments. She earned a BSEE degree from Auburn University in 1992.

Donna Cope (dscope@southernco.com) is a communications specialist who has worked at Southern Company and Alabama Power for 20 years and writes for corporate publications. She earned a bachelor's degree in communications from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1984.

Major Infrastructure Damage

The storm caused major equipment damage to Alabama Power Co.'s electric system. In seven days, a restoration force of more than 10,000 Alabama Power, contract and out-of-state utility crews installed or replaced:

• 4 million ft (1.2 million m) of wire
• 6,000 distribution poles
• Eight electrical substations damaged or destroyed
• More than 400 transmission structures.

During April 27 to May 4, the company recorded a high of approximately 284 distribution lines out and approximately 171 transmission lines out.

Companies mentioned:

Alabama Power Co.
www.alabamapower.com

Southeastern Electric Cooperative Inc.
www.southeasternelectric.com

SouthernLINC Wireless
www.southernlinc.com