By Chance Briscoe, Northwest Rural Public Power District general manager

    Rural electric utilities, such as Public Power Districts and Electric Cooperatives, serve communities spread across vast, sparsely populated regions here in Nebraska and across the country. We face the challenge of maintaining thousands of miles of power lines that stretch through difficult-to-reach areas often without roads or even a trail to reach them. When natural disasters like hurricanes, ice storms, tornadoes, or floods strike, the damage to these electrical systems can be extensive, resulting in prolonged outages. However, through a process known as Mutual Aid, rural electric utilities are able to come together, sharing resources and manpower to restore power more quickly and efficiently.

What is Mutual Aid?
Mutual aid is a collaborative agreement between utilities to provide assistance to each other during times of need, especially in the wake of natural disasters. It is essentially a formalized system of cooperation where utilities share their workers, equipment, and expertise to help restore power when one or many utilities are overwhelmed. Here in Nebraska all rural PPD’s and electric cooperatives are signatories to a statewide Mutual Aid Agreement coordinated by the Nebraska Rural Electric Association (NREA). Nationally, we are also signatories to a mutual aid agreement coordinated by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA).  
    Mutual aid agreements are typically activated when the magnitude of damage from a storm or natural disaster surpasses the capacity of a single utility to restore power on its own. These events can cause widespread outages, break off poles, snap lines, and destroy transformers.

The Role of Mutual Aid in Disaster Recovery
Power restoration is one of the critical needs in the wake of disasters. We have all seen this as the reports of wreckage have come out from hurricane Helene in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. As of writing this article, rural electric utilities in Nebraska have linemen helping that restoration effort and are preparing another round of crews to help after Milton hits Florida once again.
    Last April we saw mutual aid at both ends of our state. In early April, multiple utilities in the Panhandle were hit with a terrible blizzard that knocked down over 2,000 poles and left some customers without power for over a week. Then a few weeks later on the other side of the state we saw the damaging tornadoes that struck around the Omaha area. In both instances, power outages would have been substantially longer but for the mutual aid agreements and help from neighboring utilities.

Who Answers the Call for Mutual Aid
When a utility is hit with a disaster, they generally contact entities like NREA or NRECA to request help through mutual aid. That request is spread throughout the area and linemen volunteer to help. Often these volunteers are being sent into terrible conditions and could be away from their families for extended periods of time. During the April blizzards, Northwest Rural PPD had employees that spent about a week on restoration efforts in the cold, wind and snow banks. Volunteers for the hurricane restoration will likely be there up to a month in hot, humid and flooding conditions.

Benefits of Mutual Aid
Mutual aid not only helps restore power from disasters more quickly than a utility would be able to restore on their own but it also helps reduce the cost of restoration. Mutual aid workers are paid their normal hourly wage and overtime during their efforts. Without mutual aid, utilities would have to rely more upon contractors that are generally there to make a profit.
    Another added benefit of mutual aid is strengthening community and morale. Not only do linemen appreciate getting the help when necessary but the assisting linemen know that one day the help will be reciprocated in their time of need helping to build bonds that can last a lifetime.
    In conclusion, among the Seven Cooperative (and PPD) Principles that our organizations stand for is “Cooperation Among Cooperatives.” Mutual Aid is the highlight of that principle in action. Everyone can sleep a little easier and a little more comfortable knowing there are men and women ready to volunteer to help get the lights on and get the heat running a little faster through the Mutual Aid program.