Monday’s storm affected 38 percent of HMLP’s customers: Kudos to HMLP for a job well done

April 14, 2020 by Carol Britton Meyer

About 38 percent, or 4,020, of Hingham Municipal Lighting Plant's 10,662 customers experienced outages of various lengths as a result of yesterday's severe rain and wind storm, with gusts of 45 mph predicted earlier in the day.

Customer service reps handled more than 700 calls. "For about six hours, from about 2 to 8 p.m., their phones were ringing off the hook!" HMLP General Manager Paul Heanue told the Hingham Anchor.

Since March 16, these reps have been working from home due to the COVID-19 crisis. To ensure that all customer concerns were heard, Heanue brought reps into the HMLP operations center on a staggered basis, while adhering to social distancing guidelines.  Today they are working from home again.

Safety protocols among HMLP crews were followed, despite the challenges of such a fast-paced response, to avoid injuries.

Heanue provided a geographical breakdown of the outages:

* Mid-Hingham (Cross Street) to South Hingham customers experienced outages affecting 2,305 customers, with North Hingham, from Hersey Street to Crow’s Point, customers experiencing outages affecting 1,248 customers, mostly due to trees issues in both areas.

"HMLP crews replaced four poles, two transformers, and multiple and various types of equipment," Heanue said.  "There were multiple other poles that were temporarily repaired but will ultimately need to be replaced."

In addition, HMLP crews repaired 11 individual house services. Eight customers needed an electrician to perform the required work for HMLP to make the repairs on their end.

Larger neighborhood outages, also related to tree issues, included Liberty Pole Road, Howland Lane, Bucket Mill Lane, Harvest Lane, Popes Lane, World’s End, and part of upper Gardner Street.

Tree issues range from 100-foot-tall trees toppling over to tree limbs snapping off.

As of 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, there were three customers still without electricity that needed work performed by licensed electricians with the necessary inspections before their service could be restored.

"A fair observation/question might be, 'Since you have so many tree problems why don’t you do more tree trimming?" Heanue said. "By way of background, we have a tree contractor available 52 weeks a year. We also have brought in a second tree crew as needed, probably each year for the past five to six years, to address specific neighborhoods."

During this COVID-19 crisis HMLP linemen are only working on trouble calls -- "and we had plenty of those yesterday," Heanue said. "Thankfully we have had no COVID-19 cases."

All the line department personnel worked through the day and night, and most were still on the job today, Tuesday, cleaning up single-service calls.

HMLP has enough bucket-type trucks and other assorted vehicles so that all field employees were able to avoid having to share space in the cab of a vehicle. "Our goal in creating this system was to prevent potential cross-contamination that could affect the entire company," Heanue said.

Meter techs perform a critically-important function, responding to outage calls and providing reports as to what is happening at each location. "They have been reporting to work every other day and are continuing to read meters," Heanue said. "They keep that end of the operation running 'normally,'" in the midst of the CODIV-19 crisis.

"The day after a major storm always brings many calls, as people notice limbs on wires, low-hanging wire (most generally those are communication facilities, but we need to check each to be sure) and other trouble," Heanue said. "Crews stay especially busy on the day after a big storm."

Heanue expressed appreciation for other staff members, including maintenance staff and their stockperson, who stayed through the night issuing materials needed for repairs.

"The people who are sanitizing items such as door handles and other community surfaces during this hugely-contagious pandemic fulfill a critical function -- let's give a special shout-out to them," Heanue said.

Lastly, but certainly not least, HMLP had outside help during this challenging time. "Our regular tree contractor, Asplundh, has been available [even during the CODIV-19] crisis. They meet a HUGE need in a wind event like yesterday," Heanue said. "Once again they did yeoman’s work. Based on the forecast, I thought we’d need another crew. Asplundh was fully committed, no spare crews, so I reached out to another vendor, Pathfinder, who has worked on the HMLP system. They reported on about two hours' notice and worked until one person badly rolled his ankle and had to knock off for the day." A second crew was called in on short notice.

Part of the benefit of being a public power system, Heanue said, is the mutual aid aspect during a crisis. "At about 6 p.m. we had multiple entire circuits out with trees, poles, and wire burning on the ground," Heanue reported. "At that point I decided to ring the bell and request mutual aid. I called our regional coordinator (thank-you, Sean Murphy, of BELD -- Braintree Electric Light Department) and described my needs. He rustled up four linemen from BELD, who reported to work and worked through the night into mid-day. They were also a HUGE help in getting everyone’s lights back on."

The COVID-19 crisis "has challenged us into 'thinking outside the box' to create a work environment that will serve our employees and customers safely," Heanue said. "I think we’ve done that well, and yesterday’s storm confirmed our ability to deliver in the most trying circumstances. I am especially pleased and proud of HMLP’s employees and others who helped out. We responded magnificently."

A huge thank-you to the entire HMLP staff and everyone else who stepped up to the plate for a job well-done in such a severe storm!