Holland BPW belongs to multiple local and national organizations made of municipal utilities just like ours. Two that we belong to are the Michigan Municipal Electric Association (MMEA) and the American Public Power Association (APPA). These organizations provide support and resources in many ways, including a nonprofit program called Mutual Aid. Mutual Aid is a collection of utilities who have agreements in place to help one another in times of need with additional lineworkers, trucks, and equipment
Holland BPW has sent our teams as part of Mutual Aid elsewhere in the state and in the nation for hurricanes, ice storms, tornadoes and high wind events. This spring, Holland BPW called for Mutual Aid help to restore power to Waukazoo Woods after a May storm.
Organizing Mutual Aid
Electric Distribution Superintendent Steve Bruinsma coordinates Holland BPW’s response to and calls for Mutual Aid. Additionally, Steve and Linecrew Supervisor Brian Ruch are MMEA’s Regional Organizers for southwest Michigan. This entails coordinating all of the municipal electric utilities in one of Michigan’s five regions. Steve is also the Michigan representative to the American Public Power Association (APPA). Steve coordinates Mutual Aid nation-wide on behalf of the entire state of Michigan when places like the east coast, Florida, the Carolinas or Texas call for storm support.
When a fierce storm rolled through Holland on May 15, Steve reached out to other coordinators to ask for help. That same storm impacted the entire state. Lansing also sent a call for Mutual Aid and the same storm system spun a tornado near Sturgis as well.
A Concentrated Storm
As a community-owned utility, one of our greatest strengths is that we employ our community members. Our workers live in town and know the area and its people very well. Sometimes their own homes are impacted by the same storm that caused the damage they are trying to repair. Nevertheless, they prioritize restoring power to the wider community.
“In an emergency, it’s hard to tell how much work you have,” said Steve Bruinsma. “No one storm is ever the same so it’s difficult to prepare for. Waukazoo was concentrated with much more damage to a small area, whereas most storms have a wider footprint.”
The storm came through around 11:00pm Thursday night. It took time to assess the damage and understand what it would take to restore power. By 7:00am Friday, the team had a good grasp on the work and Steve sent out the call for Mutual Aid.
Help from Our Neighboring Municipal Utilities
Crews from other Michigan municipalities answered our call for mutual aid and arrived at the Waukazoo Woods neighborhood that same day. An additional 16 lineworkers assisted our own crew of 10 who could respond. Lineworkers from Grand Haven, Zeeland, Hillsdale, Niles and Lowell all came to help.
“It’s hard to know as you start the work how many extra hands you will need. The team attitude in an outage like that is amazing. The crew gets the work done. They’re solely focused on restoring power as safely and quickly as possible,” said Steve.
Coordinating the Details
It isn’t just the linecrew who work hard in a major storm restoration. Other BPW team members also step up to coordinate food, water, Gatorade and port-a-potties for the workers. In addition to those basic needs, the crews also need the materials to complete the work. Our Facilities and Warehouse staff came in through the weekend to pull and stage all the needs for our construction crews to replace poles, wires, transformers and more.
During an outage our Dispatch, Substations and Metering group as well as our Electric Engineering group all contribute to the same restoration work. They run calls from customers and help to orchestrate all of the details as the work progresses. System operators also help to restore circuits when they trip offline, restoring customer power as quickly and safely as possible.
Thanks to so many helping hands, the 1,350 customers without power were restored by Sunday afternoon and 30 utility poles were replaced. Mutual Aid made it possible for restoration to happen days sooner than originally anticipated.
A big thanks to Steve Bruinsma and the entire Electric Distribution team, the Facilities and Warehouse team, the City of Niles, Zeeland Board of Public Works, Lowell Light and Power, and Hillsdale Board of Public Utilities for their diligent and safe work through the outage!