MidAmerican Energy has been recognized with a national Emergency Response Award for its response last summer to a pair of major storms.
The Edison Electric Institute (EEI), the national association that represents all U.S. investor-owned electric companies, presented the award last week in Washington, D.C. MidAmerican’s award stems from its restoration efforts and storm response after severe weather events July 10-12 and again July 27-29.
According to EEI, the award recognizes “heroic recovery efforts” by electric companies and their employees following extreme weather events.
Nearly 180,000 customers were impacted by the wrath of the back-to-back storms. Here’s a look at the severe weather conditions and MidAmerican’s response:
- Thursday, July 10: That evening severe thunderstorms with wind speeds exceeding 60 mph impacted the Des Moines metro area, followed by two more days of heavy thunderstorms across eastern Iowa. The storms delivered flash flooding, two tornadoes and large hail.
The outbreak impacted service to more than 73,000 MidAmerican customers in central and eastern Iowa, causing heavy damage in the Des Moines metro area and Quad Cities. During the first storm, crews restored service to all customers within 24 hours. MidAmerican credited the swift response, in large part, to advance preparations that positioned crews strategically before the weather moved through.
After the second round, crews working around the clock restored 98% of affected customers within 24 hours.
- Sunday to Tuesday, July 27-29: Severe weather, including a derecho, again developed across Iowa. During the evening of July 28 into the early morning hours of July 29, a well-organized line of storms – including a derecho – moved through northern and eastern Iowa. Wind gusts in eastern Iowa reached nearly 60 mph, with isolated gusts approaching 70-80 mph.
The storms damaged or destroyed more than 100 transmission poles and miles of overhead lines and equipment, cutting off power to more than 105,000 MidAmerican customers.
According to MidAmerican, crews built emergency ties to neighboring utility systems to accelerate restoration and deployed three portable generators to temporarily restore service while permanent repairs were underway. These actions, the utility said, helped reduce restoration times by several days. Crews restored electricity to 99% of affected customers within 24 hours.
“Both of these severe weather outbreaks last July caused significant damage to our system and knocked out service for tens of thousands of customers,” Nick Nation, senior vice president, delivery, said in a company news release Monday, March 30. “Each time, our operations teams immediately developed repair plans and executed them safely, working around the clock, with amazing speed. We couldn’t be prouder of their efforts, and this award reflects their dedication, skill and commitment to our customers.”
Headquartered in Des Moines, MidAmerican serves 838,000 electric customers in Iowa, Illinois and South Dakota, and 811,000 natural gas customers in Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska and South Dakota.
