Lessons Learned from Unplanned Outages: Planning and Communication are Critical to Success

In recent years utilities have been working hard to plan for and respond to increasing operational challenges that can lead to power shutoffs, blackouts, and infrastructure damage. Often these events are unplanned or foreseen only days or even minutes in advance. Even if the utility is prepared, these events have enormous potential to take the customer by surprise. When these events occur, effective communication with residential and business customers throughout the experience is necessary to help customers make decisions and retain confidence in their energy provider.

This informative report utilizes interviews with six utilities that have experience in planning responses to various kinds of unplanned outages. They share lessons learned from previous experience, as well as strategies for improving processes going forward.

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