Coordinated Outage Repairs in Kentuky

The Kentucky Public Service Commission has accepted a multi-company agreement that will allow participating electric utilities and cooperatives to respond more rapidly to power outages and other emergencies by giving them greater flexibility to transfer equipment to each other.

Ordinarily, state law requires commission authorization for any sales or purchases of electric utility equipment valued at $1 million or more. But the commission agreed with the joint applicants that in emergency situations, such as after a major weather event, the time it would take to secure such commission consent could slow down system repairs and restoration of service. Consequently, the commission adopted the proffered agreement and preapproved emergency transfers of large electric transmission system transformers even when such would exceed the $1 million threshold. The commission concurred that its preapproval of such transactions will help expedite the transfer of utility-owned transformers in connection with the plan crafted by the sponsoring utilities, known as the Regional Equipment Sharing for Transmission Outage Restoration (RESTORE) program.

The commission related that the agreement also extends to other, less expensive equipment such as circuit breakers and will facilitate utility access to spare infrastructure components needed to restore the transmission grid in a timely manner following disruption caused by a catastrophic event. The commission emphasized that in the event of an outage or other event that threatens a utility’s transmission system, the RESTORE agreement gives participating utilities the ability to quickly obtain the equipment needed to complete repairs.

Four Kentucky jurisdictional electric service providers are now subject to the RESTORE arrangement: Duke Energy Kentucky, Kentucky Utilities Company (KU), Louisville Gas & Electric Company (LG&E), and East Kentucky Power Cooperative. Of the four, KU and LG&E are sister affiliates, both being subsidiaries of PPL Corporation, which was an original participant in developing a multistate RESTORE program. The commission remarked that the RESTORE effort had first begun in 2016, led by the PPL utilities, The Southern Company, and the Tennessee Valley Authority. According to the commission, a total of 28 utilities in the South and Midwest are now part of the RESTORE paradigm. (Case No. 2017-00410)