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19th Outage Response and Restoration Management 

Exercising and Executing Plans and Best Practices to Safely, Efficiently, and Effectively Restore Service 

October 28-30, 2019
The W-Buckhead, Atlanta

marcus evans Noth America

What our delegates think of us:

An interview with Tomaso Giannelli, Senior Manager, Outage Communications at Southern California Edison

Ahead of the 19th Outage Response and Restoration Management conference, we spoke with Tomaso Giannelli, Senior Manager, Outage Communications at Southern California Edison on wildlife mitigation strategies and effective communication methods during emergency wildfire events.

Tomaso, at the upcoming fall conference, you are planning to speak on wildfire mitigation strategies. Obviously, this is a huge topic of concern and interest. How is SCE strengthening their wildfire risk and mitigation program?  

SCE has a robust wildfire mitigation program. For starters we have a state of the art Emergency Operations Center that includes multiple full time meteorologists on staff that monitor wind speeds, humidity levels, moisture levels and short and long term forecasts across our vast network of weather stations. In addition, we are working to harden our grid with covered conductor, fast-acting fuses and automatic reclosers. We also have an enhanced overhead inspection program for high fire risk areas that go above and beyond tradition inspections. As most have heard, we do have a program known as Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) in which, if the fire risk is too extreme, we will de-energize lines in at risk areas. Finally we have enhanced our vegetation management programs and began using infrared cameras for inspections.

In your opinion and experience, what are the most effective communication methods during emergency wildfire events?

The most effective communication method is one that a customer will see. SCE understands that customers want a choice in how they get their information. Because of this, we have developed a system that quickly sends out notifications to customers via the communication channel of their preference. This includes Voice, Text, SMS and TTY. We also partner with local governments and use social media to get the word out.

What are the main challenges that arise?  

Getting customers to update their contact information. Most customers don’t notify their utility of a new phone number or email address.

What proactive measures do customers take to minimize wildfire risk?

Living in an area where there are not a lot of storms people can get lost in the monotony mild temperatures and forget that California is prone to natural disasters. While Southern Californians had a couple of reminders in July about Earthquakes, it is still easy to put off putting a plan together. It is essential that all customers have a resiliency plan in place to ensure they are prepared for the potential of being without power for an extended period of time.

On a personal note, how did you get to where you are at now in your career? What advice would you give to your 16-year-old self?

A lot of relationship building and talking less and listening more. People (customers, co-workers and employees) will tell you what they want and how they want to be treated, you just need to listen. Treat people they way THEY want to be treated, not necessarily the way you want to be treated.

1. Believe in yourself, if you don’t then no one else will.

2. Find something to fuel your motivation. For me it’s being told I can't accomplish something.

Tomaso Giannelli is one of our keynote speakers

Why you should attend this marcus evans conference?

More than 14 hours of focused end-user driven case studies

• Assess lessons learned and best practices in restoration from recent outages of all size and origin 

• Exceed the expectations of regulators, contractors, mutual assistance partners, and customers via proactive, sustained and effective communication and collaboration 

• Utilize accurate predictive modeling to spearhead activation plans, determine resource allocation and estimate location of damage to drive decisions 

• Benchmark performance of your restoration plans and efforts amongst industry peers from not only US Based IOUs, Munis, and Coops but also practitioners from Canada, Europe, the Caribbean and beyond 

• Integrate tools and technologies such as OMS, SCADA, DMS, GIS, LIDAR, Dispatching, Field Service Equipment, and similar for improved efficiencies
  
  

Practical insights from active professionals in your sector

Stanley  J. Fabinski
Director, Emergency Preparedness  
ComEd

Shane Powell
Distribution Manager
Alabama Power

Jason C. Hollifield
GM, Emergency Preparedness
Duke Energy 

Tom Columbia
Section Manager, Emergency Support Group
ConEd

Angie Gibson
Sr. Manager, Emergency / Restoration
Pacific Gas & Electric Company 

Case study: 
Mastering the Swift Implementation of Wildfire Mitigation Strategies to Control the Unpredictable 

• Deploying personalized ad-hoc communications during unpredictable events
• Utilizing various tools to minimize the risk of utility caused within wildfires
• Moving seamlessly on and off playbook messaging
• Upgrading strategies for vegetation management, inspections, and de-  energizing power                                                                                                                                               • Improving notification time to customers by collaborating with our partner to create a customized messaging solution

For registration pricing and multiple attendee discounts, please contact:

Melini Hadjitheori 
melinih@marcusevanscy.com