EEI’s member companies are committed to providing the electricity that powers our economy and our way of life. The electric power industry has a strong track record of maintaining high levels of reliability. However, incidents such as hurricanes, wildfires, or earthquakes can impact the energy grid and cause widespread power outages.

That is why electric companies invest in resilience and undertake power restoration and business continuity planning year-round to prepare for all types of emergencies. EEI supports member companies by identifying and promoting best practices through benchmark efforts and forums and finds collective solutions to business continuity programs, processes, and projects across the industry and companies. Additionally, companies regularly exercise and drill to prepare for cyber and physical attacks against the energy grid and significant outages caused by severe weather events.

Restoring electricity after a major storm or other disruption is a complex task, and a safe and efficient restoration requires significant logistical expertise, skilled lineworkers, and specialized equipment. Electric companies affected by significant outages often turn to the industry’s mutual assistance network – a voluntary partnership of electric companies from across the country – to help speed restoration.

Preparing for Power Outages

Mutual assistance is an essential part of the electric power industry’s service restoration process and contingency planning. EEI’s mutual assistance program is a voluntary partnership of investor-owned electric companies across the country committed to helping restore power whenever and wherever assistance is needed.

Through mutual assistance, electric companies impacted by a major outage event can request help from electric companies across the country. When called upon, a company will send skilled restoration workers—both company employees and contractors—along with specialized equipment to help with the restoration efforts of a fellow company.

The goal of the mutual assistance program is to restore electric service in a safe, effective manner. Mutual assistance partnerships also allow companies to share best practices and technologies that help the industry improve its ability to prepare for – and respond to – emergencies; and enable a consistent, unified response to emergency events.

Electric companies plan for all types of contingencies, and they own and have access to spare equipment as part of their business continuity planning. For example, companies, on an individual basis, own hundreds of additional spare transformers, and other equipment. In addition, just as energy companies share crews as part of the industry’s voluntary mutual assistance programs to restore power, they also regularly share transformers and other equipment.

The nation’s electric transmission and distribution systems deliver power along millions of miles of lines to neighborhoods, businesses, and customers. These lines are both overhead and underground.

Following any major storm or event that affects many customers or that damages a large part of the energy grid, it is common for customers, public officials, and the media to question whether underground electrical infrastructure would resolve or substantially mitigate weather-related outages.

There are many localized issues that electric companies, policymakers, and community leaders need to consider to assess the feasibility of transitioning from an overhead system to an underground system.

The Electricity Subsector Coordinating Council (ESCC) serves as the principal liaison between the federal government and the electric power industry on efforts to prepare for, and respond to, national-level disasters or threats to critical infrastructure. During storms, wildfires, and other incidents, EEI works through the CEO-led ESCC to coordinate with government partners at the Department of Energy, the Department of Homeland Security, and the National Security Council to ensure that industry and government efforts are aligned.

New technologies like Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) or “drones” are increasingly an important tool for electric companies’ resilience and reliability programs. EEI and its member companies are advancing these technologies through testing and innovative use, supporting effective legislation and regulations for UAS and by sharing knowledge among member companies to safely, legally, efficiently, and intelligently integrate UAS technologies into electric company operations.