Answering the call to help get Baldwin the advanced damage reports they needed. Right in the nick of time!
ABOUT: Baldwin Electric Membership Cooperative
Located in southwestern Alabama, Baldwin EMC (BEMC) is the largest electric cooperative in the state and one of the fastest-growing electric cooperatives in the nation. As a member-owned cooperative, they supply electric service to more than 81,000 meters throughout Baldwin County and southern Monroe County. Their service territory is located between Mobile, Alabama, and Pensacola, Florida, and includes beautiful Gulf Shores and Orange Beach. Baldwin EMC has been part of the Partner Software family since 2006. We reached out to Brian Seals, Manager of Engineering, who has been with the company for 24 years, to ask about a recent storm and how our software helped them with the recovery.
CHALLENGE: Hurricane Sally
In September 2020, southern Alabama was hit by Hurricane Sally, a large, slow-moving storm that caused extensive damage to BEMC’s service area. The last time Alabama experienced a storm this devastating was in 2004 with Hurricane Ivan. When Hurricane Sally made landfall in Alabama 16 years after Ivan, it landed in the same area, on the same day. Talk about history repeating itself. BEMC knew how much damage a storm this size could cause and how important it was to document the damage correctly.
In years past, Seals and his team depended on spreadsheets and paper reports to record storm damages. Fast forward to September 17, 2020, where 78,057 meters experienced power outages. In her wake, Hurricane Sally left over a thousand broken poles, miles upon miles of lines on the ground, and at least 5,000 trees on power lines.
BEMC needed more than spreadsheets and paper reports to get the job done.
SOLUTION:
Damage Assessment with Advanced Reporting for BEMC
Seeing the damage the storm caused, Seals reached out to Partner Software for help. We quickly set up a call with his team and shared what our Damage Assessment software could do and how it could help. Within days, BEMC had Damage Assessment installed on their system and were using it to document the damage they saw, using iOS devices to collect pole locations and take photographs.
The new solution could not come soon enough. To help with documenting the recovery, inspectors from multiple states traveled to BEMC’s service territory. With only half a day needed to train these crews, no time was lost or documentation missed because of unnecessary time spent in a classroom. With Partner on iOS devices, these crews could visualize BEMC’s entire system and access necessary background data. Using Damage Assessment, crews could easily collect data and the locations of damaged equipment where BEMC needed to pick up material and perform repairs. BEMC was also able to show when tasks had been completed, allowing Seals and his team to manage the entire operation and keep crews on task.
From start to finish, with the help of Partner Software’s Damage Assessment, BEMC and inspection crews were able to identify damaged hardware and transformers; easily document repairs of downed poles and broken streetlights, and record all the work with photographs from each damaged asset’s location.
But to recoup the costs of this incredible effort, BEMC needed more.
SOLUTIONS:
Customized Reports for BEMC
Months after the storm had passed, BEMC was in the process of preparing a case to receive federal funding for the immense cost involved in repairing and replacing the damage to its electric system. To make matters more complicated, updated reporting requirements were needed for each damaged location. Seals and his team realized they would need to customize their reports to fully document the damage.
Needing help with this huge project, Seals again reached out to Partner, this time in hopes of getting customized reports that he could use when presenting his case to FEMA. He needed detailed reports requiring all of the data and photographs that had been collected from each damaged location. All 2,800 of those locations included pictures, GPS points, assemblies, and other information collected by BEMC and outside inspection crews. Seals needed these reports within two weeks.
Partner answered the call and was able to build customized reports for BEMC with the necessary fields and automatically populate them with data collected from Damage Assessment. We designed and delivered a 2,800-page damage report, synced the data, and had it auto-populate the report for BEMC to download within their 14-day timeframe.
Outcome: A True Success
In a crisis, you need a team you can trust and tools ready to deploy to get the job done. That is just the role Partner and our Damage Assessment solution filled for one of the largest electric cooperatives in the nation, allowing hundreds of temporary crews to get the lights back on for its 78,057 meters. And when called on to go above and beyond to help BEMC get the customized reporting they needed in order to present a worthy case to FEMA, Partner’s team answered.
“The outcome was a success,” Seals said. One of the most beneficial things during such a monumental
crisis was “the ease of the software.”
How can we help you?
We can deliver similar results for your organization. Whether you need to tackle storm damage and seek funds from FEMA or collect, analyze and organize data specific to a project or issue you’re facing, Partner Software has the tools and the team for the job.
Email us or give us a call to find out more about customized reports, our Damage Assessment solution, and how they can help you!
