Nothing could have prepared Western Kentucky for the powerful tornado that tore through communities in December 2021. Homes were leveled. Community landmarks were demolished. Mass power outages.
“The level of destruction was unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” said David Smart, the president and CEO of West Kentucky Rural Electric Cooperative. “…a path 38 miles long and a mile wide in our service territory.”
While the damage was immense and difficult to measure, West Kentucky Rural Electric Cooperative knew the community needed their power restored and got to work. Within an hour of touchdown, West Kentucky’s staff assembled to begin assessing damage to the distribution system. Within 24 hours, 115 line personnel were out in the community restoring power and helping their neighbors.
The reliable FlexNet communication network enabled the co-op to remotely determine which meters were without power and move quickly toward recovery.
Preparedness ensures prompt restoration
Electricity was restored to more than 30,000 co-op members across Graves and Marshall Counties within just eight days. The utility and its membership had the distinct advantage of remotely-managed, resilient infrastructure from a North Carolina-based provider of smart technologies and services for utilities.
Just five years earlier, the co-op had deployed the same provider’s communication network, which is a reliable, point-to-multipoint system that enables near real-time meter data monitoring that allowed them to pinpoint how many meters were damaged.
Following the storm, experts from the services provider traveled to the region to confirm the system had survived. All network gear withstood the catastrophe and the network’s outage notifications helped target where restoration efforts should begin.
“The network helped us determine if there was still a meter without power in the field, as opposed to us sending out a truck,” said Smart. “It allowed us to pinpoint outages quicker and we restored power to all our co-op members in almost a week’s time.”
It also helped identify the 218 homes destroyed beyond repair in the co-op’s service area.
West Kentucky Rural Electric Cooperative got right to work following a devastating tornado. Within an hour of touchdown, the co-op’s team began assessing damage to the distribution system.
A tale of precaution
Line personnel and mutual aid crews from across the region displayed a heroic dedication to service and community while working to restore power to all members within eight days after the tornado in Marshall and Graves counties.
Smart recalled asset and data backup as one of the most important lessons learned. The co-op’s main office remained structurally intact, but directly across the street, a candle factory was leveled by the tornado. Just down the road, the provider’s operations center somehow avoided destruction.
“Our main office and our operations center are only two miles apart,” said Smart. “We were dangerously close to losing all of the trucks and equipment that make the emergency recovery efforts possible.”
The ordeal led Smart to consider opening a secondary, offsite IT, data and operations center to ensure that local weather emergencies would not affect it. He was relieved to know that the provider had backed up and managed all data from their customers’ smart utility devices in a secure location. This hosted solution provides an insurance policy for data in times of emergency.
“This time we were able to access our own data, but it’s nice to know we have a safety net,” said Smart. “You can never have enough redundancy when it comes to resilient operations.”
Kindness in times of crisis
Community is defined as fellowship with others who share common goals. In the wake of this tragedy, line personnel, first responders and volunteers across the region came together for one common goal: to help their neighbors in need.
Disaster relief agencies rushed to the area’s aid. Volunteers lent a hand wherever needed. Mutual aid crews from across Kentucky, joined by teams from Tupelo, Mississippi and numerous contractors partnered with West Kentucky’s crews to replace 250 transformers and stand up nearly 500 poles. The communications network services provider stepped up once again, partnering with Americares to set up a charitable campaign that yielded $28,000 in relief funds.
“This is the epitome of what America is all about,” said Smart. “As part of the co-op family, we’re committed to service, and we’ll return the favor when another electricity provider needs mutual aid. We are truly stronger together.”
Dan Bennett is the vice president of product management, energy solutions with Xylem. He has nine years of service with the smart technology company. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in both electrical engineering and computer engineering from North Carolina State University in Raleigh.
