Special to the Journal
Muleshoe and other area Xcel Energy employees will be among those deployed to Puerto Rico to aid in power restoration efforts, according to an Xcel Energy press release.
Personnel from Texas and New Mexico are joining other Xcel Energy employees from the Upper Midwest and Colorado in this effort.
A convoy of service and line trucks was driven during the first week of January from Amarillo to the Gulf Coast, and the vehicles are now on barges headed to Puerto Rico.
From the Texas-New Mexico region, Xcel is committing to send just under 30 employees in two separate deployments. A group of 12 to 15 will be flown out around Feb. 1 and work for 21 days, followed by the deployment of the second group.
Xcel will be working with American Electric Power, the lead mainland utility assisting the restoration.
Employees will be working in and around Caguas, a mountainous and remote region in the southeast area of the island. This is where the storm came inland and the damage is significant. The crews will work with incident management teams that have partnered with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) on restoration efforts.
PREPA is working with members of the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on damage assessment and a coordinated restoration plan. More than 20 electric companies, including Xcel Energy, are part of a coordinated, nationwide mutual assistance response that’s bringing nearly 1,500 additional workers to Puerto Rico. With these new workers more than 5,500 people will be part of the restoration efforts.
Employees from the following towns will be assisting:
From Texas: Canadian, Hereford, Levelland, Littlefield, Lubbock, Muleshoe, Pampa, Perryton, Plainview, Seminole and Wheeler
From New Mexico: Clovis, Roswell and Tucumcari
“We want to assist the people of Puerto Rico and we are honored to be part of this restoration effort,” said Kent Larson, executive vice president and group president, operations-Xcel Energy. “This is a massive undertaking under difficult circumstances, but our crews are ready to bring power back on safely- it’s what we would do for our own customers and we want to deliver that same quality of service to our fellow citizens in Puerto Rico.”
Xcel Energy is part of the Edison Electric Institute’s Mutual Assistance program. Following major storms that bring significant outages, electric companies use this program — a voluntary partnership of electric companies from across the country — to help speed restoration. To learn more about mutual assistance, visit http://www.eei.org/issuesandpolicy/electricreliability/mutualassistance/Pages/default.aspx.
