8/8/2019 The Challenge for Those in Power, IEE Review story on Katrina aftermath and repowering of NOLA

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24team from New York was called upon, alongwith dozens of other teams from all over thecountry.

Entergy deployed about 10,000 personnelfor the Katrina recovery, along with some 3000support workers, such as safety coordinatorsand vegetation workers. Total staff includedthose from Mutual Assistance, a consortium ofSouthern utilities that pitch in and help eachother after natural disasters.

Further, about 1800 Entergy staff had to be

relocated from the corporate headquarters inNew Orleans after it partially flooded. All of thiswould have been a non-issue had the leveesremained sound. So the multi-million-dollarquestion is: Why did the levees breach?

According to Glynn Steckler Jr, an electricalengineer for the New Orleans Army Corps ofEngineers, the root of the problem can betraced to an outdated levee system. “It’s a very,very archaic system. They – Orleans ParishSewage and Water Board – never quite trustedthe power grid – they wanted something they

could control.”Steckler explained that the pumping systemoperates at 25Hz instead of the US standard60Hz, “so the unique challenge was that asignificant number of the pumps could not bebrought on line by throwing on a generatorbecause they operated off 25Hz, which nobodyelse uses at all.”

Electrical engineer Charlie Brown says thatfor Entergy, his employer, dealing with the

nightmare began. Two of the city’s leveesbreached and water submerged the region.

“The guys came down to a bit more water,and then they came down a while later and itwas getting deeper and deeper,” says DanSimon, field operations manager for New YorkCity-based Con Edison. “They lost a lot of theirvehicles in the flooding.” As a result, Simon’s

THE EVENING AFTER HURRICANEKatrina slammed into the US Gulf Coast on29 August, staff at the New Orleans-basedutility Entergy breathed a collective sigh of relief.For, although the Big Easy lost power during thestorm, a crew had gone to sleep at theirdowntown hotel to mere broken windows,downed trees and power lines. But then the

THE CHALLENGE FORTHOSE IN POWERLaurie Wiegler has been talking to the peopleworking to restore power after Hurricane Katrina

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2005 Daphne Jackson Memorial Event:F1 - Balance of Possibilities

Engineering the future

To be presented by Natalie Keeler MEng, Senior Test Engineer, Mercedes Benz HighPerformanceEngines Ltd.

The event will also include the presentation of the Karen Burt Award made to a woman engineer of high calibre who hasrecently achieved Chartered status. The audience will be invited to judge the award following presentations by three finalists.

Tickets for the Daphne Jackson Event are now available from:IEE Media and Public RelationsTel: +44 (0)20 7344 5443Email: publicrelations@iee.org

Monday 21st November, 2005 at 5.15pm for 6pm The IEE, Savoy Place, London WC2

Workers thread new cables throughtree-lined New Orleans streets

8/8/2019 The Challenge for Those in Power, IEE Review story on Katrina aftermath and repowering of NOLA

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A N A L Y S I S

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situation meant setting priorities: “[After mostdisasters], the first thing you want to get on iselectricity,” says Brown, “where, in this case, wefirst wanted to get the water out. So we helpedassist the water board by whatever meansnecessary – whether that meant a generator orpower source. Until we got the water out, wecouldn’t get our facilities back.”

As for other challenges, they were andremain myriad. To date, according to Brown,the entire Katrina restoration is 95% complete,

but for New Orleans proper, it’s anybody’sguess as to how long restoration will take.

Simon points out that the New Orleanspower system is underground, except for theoutskirts of town. And while Brown says it’seasier to restore an underground than anabove ground system – it’s less vulnerable towind, and manholes are generally watertight – help was nevertheless needed. Undergroundassistance came from New York, which is wellpractised in underground recovery given itssubway system.

“The Central Business District isunderground and it takes a special skill set, butthey went back fairly fast. We’re at 100% orclose to that right now,” says Brown.

Above ground, facilities like the LouisianaSuperdome – the mammoth structure thatserved as a refuge for New Orleans residentsduring and after the storm – were not spared.“It’s fed out of Derbigny [a substation] whichwas under about eight feet [2.4m] of water andoil. The power came back quicker than theyanticipated – amazingly enough, they were ableto get that particular station restored in just aweek or two.”

John Adragna, an electrical engineer whooversees the electric service for Long IslandPower Authority (LIPA), commenting on the jobthat remains, says simply that the city’sinfrastructure needs rebuilding “because thepower lines are down, poles are down andequipment is damaged... It’s just like building anew electrical system which took many years tobuild.”

Adragna’s team was typical of utilities fromas far away as New York that raced down to

pitch in after the levees breached. “In NewOrleans it was mainly the levees that caused thedamage because the hurricane went east of thecity, that’s my understanding,” says Adragna.

Unfortunately, another complication wasabout to blow in – Hurricane Rita – whichhit the region on 24 September andsubsequently overwhelmed Entergy’s Texasoutpost. Even so, Brown says they didn’ttake time off. “We continued our restorationin New Orleans. A lot of the corporateresources that serve both areas didn’t get abreak. People helping to restore Katrina hadto be spread across Rita as well. It put aserious strain on resources.”

Brown, who is manager of distribution asset

Entergy offered temporary housing for itsown workers as well as Mutual Assistancepersonnel, setting up large staging areascomplete with showers and sleepingarrangements. And all hands were on deck – including those of electrical engineers.

“The guys in my group are normally in officeplanning, and they were out there in the fieldwith everyone else. For every one in the officeyou had 20 more out in the field, takingtechnical assessments needed to determine

material and damage, and any customer issues

Above: Helicopters were used to rebuild transmission in swampland

planning – a job which includes monitoringvoltage and power problems and planning loadgrowth for Louisiana – says that now the issueis one of decision-making.

“As a result of the total devastation thatflood waters left, it’s a matter of deciding whichstations we need to bring back and when froma load perspective because, overnight, we lost agood percentage of the load in the city and thepeople that go with it [in that most peoplerelocated],” says Brown.

When asked what lessons a UK engineermight glean from the Katrina recovery, Brownsays: “The biggest lesson is that when you haveto restore something from that type ofdevastation, you have to address [the needs of]

employees who lost everything. Our employeesdid a good job doing that, ensuring that [others]would have jobs and a place to come back to.You have to relieve the employee’s mind.”

that may come up from a technical standpoint,”says Brown.

Technical concerns weren’t always as easyto iron out, and Brown says he was remindedof the need to communicate during a crisis.

“For instance, the cell phone sites werenon-existent; they were underwater anddidn’t have dual backup and some folkswere on a different server. Corporatecommunications down in the city was non-existent.” Radios seemed to work, thoughBrown says cell phones became operationalfairly quickly.

“We had a drill that was almost identicalto what occurred prior to the storm. It maysound boastful, but we weren’t surprised [by

Entergy’s response],” says Brown. “What didsurprise me was I was working withemployees who would lose everything andin some cases family members.”

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