NOVI – To help restore electric service to communities after catastrophic emergencies or significant natural events, 28 utilities – including ITC Transmission and METC in Michigan – have now committed to participate in the RESTORE program, which establishes a proactive approach to providing critical equipment for utilities that need additional resources during disaster recovery.
The program establishes a binding agreement among participating utilities to buy power from each other in the event of a disaster.
Utility cooperation and the ability to call on additional resources play a critical role during times of natural disasters and other emergencies that can impact our electric transmission system,” said John Lucas, Chair of RESTORE’s Operating Committee and Southern Company General Manager of Transmission Policy and Services.
The national importance of a strategic transformer reserve has been highlighted by the Department of Energy’s Strategic Transformer Reserve Report to Congress earlier this year. Newly formed at the time of that DOE Report, the RESTORE program is now a fully functional collaborative effort that takes advantage of regional cooperation and is consistent with DOE’s recommendation supporting voluntary industry-based options to address the reserve.
RESTORE, or Regional Equipment Sharing for Transmission Outage Restoration, was founded in 2016 by Louisville Gas and Electric Company and Kentucky Utilities Company, PPL Electric Utilities, Tennessee Valley Authority and Southern Company to identify and share spare transformers and other transmission equipment, which will then be available for purchase by other participants in the event of a major disaster within their service area.
“Utility cooperation and the ability to call on additional resources play a critical role during times of natural disasters and other emergencies that can impact our electric transmission system,” said John Lucas, Chair of RESTORE’s Operating Committee and Southern Company General Manager of Transmission Policy and Services. “Launching the RESTORE program, coupled with existing industry programs and each utility’s internal resources, further strengthens total grid resiliency for the region and electricity customers.”
Jon Jipping, Chief Operating Officer for ITC Holdings Corp., including Michigan operating companies ITCTransmission and METC, added: “Establishing these types of relationships and being able to call on more than 20 neighboring utilities at a moment’s notice will mean a more efficient response and expedited recovery when experiencing these types of emergencies.”
The largest independent electricity transmission company in the country, ITC operates in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula and portions of Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma. ITC also focuses on new areas where significant transmission system improvements are needed through ITC Grid Development and its subsidiaries.
