Alabama Power has again drawn praise from the electric utility industry for extraordinary efforts last year to quickly restore power in the wake of storms.
The Edison Electric Institute (EEI) was poised to present the company with a prestigious Emergency Recovery Award Thursday night in Palm Beach, Florida.
The award is bestowed for two events: first, restoring power after an EF-3 tornado March 19 rumbled 34 miles through east Alabama – causing significant damage to Jacksonville State University – resulting in 31,000 outages.
“Due to their tireless work, Alabama Power’s crews restored service within two-and-a-half days of the storm, dedicating 70,600 man-hours to the recovery,” the EEI said in a press release.
The second event was related to a rare “derecho” storm with winds near 60 miles per hour that moved from north Alabama to the Gulf of Mexico on June 28. The storm extended 400 miles, originating in Tennessee, swooping through Alabama and causing 230,000 outages in the company’s service territory.
“Alabama Power’s crews restored service to 100 percent of customers three days after the storm, dedicating 86,000 man-hours to the recovery,” the EEI release said.
“I’m extremely proud of the performance of our employees when so many of our customers are impacted by these types of storms,” said Scott Moore, senior vice president for Power Delivery at Alabama Power. “Our teams are to be commended not only for these two events, but for their consistent performance time and again to get the lights back on for our customers so quickly.”
The Emergency Recovery Award is given to EEI member companies to recognize extraordinary efforts to restore power to customers after service disruptions caused by severe weather conditions and natural events. Winners are chosen by a panel of judges following an international nomination process.
“The dedication of Alabama Power’s crews to restore service throughout Alabama after severe weather, tornadoes and a derecho wind event illustrates our industry’s commitment to customers,” said EEI President Tom Kuhn. “Alabama Power’s crews worked tirelessly in hazardous conditions to quickly and safely restore power. They are truly deserving of this award.”
EEI represents all U.S. investor-owned electric companies, which combined provide power to 220 million Americans. EEI has more than 65 international electric companies as members and hundreds of industry suppliers and related organizations as associate members.
