Ameren's Storm Response

Planning and Preparation

Restoration Process

Planning and Preparation

Ameren has a comprehensive Storm Response Plan that includes defined roles and responsibilities for participants, logistics, staging sites and other information needed to restore power to customers quickly.

This plan emphasizes public and employee safety before, during and after the storm.
  

1.

Logistics―An Important Aspect of Storm Preparation

Logistics involve the need for staging sites, hotels, food, and other items necessary to support crews from outside of the affected area or crews from other companies.

Ameren makes contracts and agreements with local entities to ensure that staging sites are available, contacts are in place with hotels, and other agreements are in place so that logistics can be handled quickly and effectively with little notice.

2.

Storm Trailers―Mobile Warehouses

Ameren also prepares by stocking and maintaining mobile warehouses―called Storm Trailers.

Trailers are filled with materials crews need to perform their restoration duties. They can be moved to various staging sites to provide materials when outside crews come in to help with the restoration efforts and to provide a store of materials close to the area with the most damage.

3.

Storm Tracking and Response

Ameren contracts with national weather vendors to provide continuous weather monitoring throughout the year. These vendors provide weather information to Ameren’s storm team on a 24/7 basis.

When severe weather threatens, or when the National Weather Service issues weather warnings, the vendor pages members of the Ameren Storm Team.

Ameren uses this information to determine when and where to mobilize restoration crews in the event of major outages.

4.

Additional Storm Monitoring Support

Ameren has a sophisticated lightning detection system―one the company pioneered for other utilities―which helps the company determine where lightning strikes may have occurred on its transmission and distribution systems.

The company also uses satellite-based weather information services, which provide up-to-the minute weather information, including radar, to each of its dispatch offices and the storm center.

The weather in the Midwest is very dynamic; thunderstorms and tornadoes can develop with little warning. These services allow Ameren to stay abreast of all developing weather and allow us to prepare and respond quickly when severe weather affects service to any of our customers.

5.

Ameren Emergency Operation Centers

When severe weather begins to cause damage to the Ameren system, we activate our Ameren Emergency Operation Centers in downtown St. Louis or Decatur, Ill.

Storm Center personnel track the storm, coordinate preparation efforts, and, if the storm causes more damage than local crews can restore quickly, they immediately begin recruiting outside restoration help. This outside help first comes from other Ameren divisions and operating companies. These resources are poised to quickly respond to the needs of all Ameren customers. If additional resources are needed, Ameren will contact its mutual assistance partners (see below) to quickly get help from other utilities.

6.

Damage Assessment

When the storm has passed, Ameren must determine, quickly and accurately, how hard it hits the company’s system. Ameren acts aggressively to make this happen:

Damage assessment scouts―called field checkers―are prepared in advance, and immediately after impact are dispatched to begin the assessment. This initial assessment helps develop an estimate of crews required, resources and materials needed, as well as the estimated time to complete restoration.

Backbone feeders, those with major feeder trunk lines that support a large number of customers, get particular attention and must be restored to service as quickly as possible.

Following this, field checkers are assigned to work with smaller outages and facilities to further evaluate the damage and provide detailed assessment to facilitate the restoration efforts.

7.

Mutual Assistance Agreements―When Does Ameren Ask for Help?

Typically, local crews can handle the outages in their area and make repairs quickly and safely. During major storms local Ameren divisions receive assistance from other Ameren divisions and other Ameren operating companies. Ameren can quickly and efficiently move extra resources into an area to help restore power to its customers.

Mutual Assistance Agreements help Ameren respond to the needs of its customers when storm damage is greater than the company can quickly handle with its internal resources.

If the resources available from Ameren companies are not sufficient to quickly restore power to all customers, Ameren will request help from neighboring utilities. Ameren participates in Mutual Assistance Organizations with other utilities. This sets the framework for the sharing of resources between these companies.

Mutual Assistance companies meet annually to strengthen their partnerships. Ameren participates in two different mutual assistance organizations.

The Restoration Process

In general, restoration of electrical service to customers proceeds like this:

Large transmission lines receive top priority. Without power available from power plants, all other restoration efforts are useless.

Substations must be functioning for power to reach local distribution lines.

Hospitals, major police and fire stations and public works facilities are restored next, along with the backbone feeders that carry the power from the substations to the customers.

Ameren makes repairs that will restore the greatest number of customers at one time―in this order:

Lines serving large blocks of customers.

Lines serving neighborhoods follow because multiple customers are involved.

Individual services are restored last because fewer customers are involved, and, in the case of scattered outages, it often takes more time to get power back on for them.

During a storm, a customer could be affected by just one problem or a combination of problems. All problems affecting that customer must be corrected before electricity can be restored―a situation that can extend restoration times. See Distribution System.

Ameren is Working on the Problem

You may see Ameren crews in your neighborhood that do not stop to restore your power. This happens when they are working to repair the substation supply lines or large feeder trunk lines that ultimately serve you.

Feeder lines typically run for several miles and crews must repair them before they can restore your service―so you may not see an Ameren crew in your neighborhood, but crews are still working to restore your power. Our crews work until all Ameren customers are restored.

Estimated Restoration Times

In less severe storms or other smaller outages, we may be able to provide you with an estimated restoration time.

However, in major storms, it may not be possible to provide meaningful restoration information due to the extent of the damage and the volume of information and phone calls coming into our system.

When this happens, we can assure you that:

Our highly trained work force is dedicated to stepping in when major storms hit. People from all departments participate in the effort to ensure power is restored as quickly and safely as possible.

Our line crews from throughout our Missouri and Illinois service territory will be reassigned to damaged areas to help us respond more quickly during major storms.

Our agreements with out-of-town utility crews will bring in extra assistance if the situation requires it.

In addition, our entire staff of customer service representatives is on-call during major outages of extended duration. Our interactive and highly automated voice response system allows us to handle thousands of calls simultaneously. And, personnel from our Corporate Communications department are available seven days a week to provide the media with outage information when requested.