Telecom Firms Seek ‘First Responder’ Treatment

BellSouth has urged Stafford Act amendments to ensure telecom gets “first responder” treatment in access to power, fuel, water and security, said Asst. Vp-Federal Relations David Barron. The telecom carrier was asked to weigh in by members of Congress, especially Sens. Vitter (R-La.) and Landrieu (D-La.), Barron said. “People have recognized the need for communications in general, and telecommunications in particular, to have some kind of priority treatment because it is so critical to the recovery effort,” said Barron, a member of the Telecom & Electric Power Interdependency Task Force (TEPITF).

A key issue before TEPITF is prioritization of power restoration after natural disasters like hurricanes, said TEPITF member Mike Hyland, vp-engineering of the American Public Power Assn. (APPA): “Everyone wants to be priority one.” Telecom firms, he said, always ask, “why aren’t we higher priority?” For years, power utilities have looked at telecom firms the same way they have looked at any other business, he said. “You do your prioritization based on loss of life -- your hospitals, your houses. We had circuits [where] we knew there was somebody on a dialysis machine, and they are the circuits we try to bring on first.” Among telecom firms’ “complaints” is they should be “helped up first,” Hyland said: “'We should have the power. We are the telecommunications sector and more important. Without communications no one survives.'” Power companies have been trying to “explain how can you be more important than a hospital,” he said.

Barron said telecom companies aren’t seeking number one status, or even number 6. “We are just saying that in the scheme of things, government also will recognize the fact that communications is critical and that we get some priority treatment.” The Stafford Act spells out priorities for what the govt. can do to help restoration, he said, and telecom isn’t on the list. “We have no priority, not officially,” Barron said. Typically, health and human services get top priority and others, including 911, follow, he said.

Hyland said there has been no national policy on power restoration to customers after disasters. Those decisions typically are made at the local level, he added: “Nationally, no one has come in and said this is how we are going to hook up customers. You don’t do it that way.” Restoration has been based on local preference, he said: “Ninety-nine out of 100 times it is going to be based on life.” Prioritization of communications is “definitely important” and increasingly will be addressed by the task force, he said. Unlike other storms, Katrina was compounded by persistent flooding, said Barron. That inhibited telecom companies’ ability to get to “critical” sites and refuel generators, he said: “So we had an unusual situation with Katrina.”

TEPITF Chmn. John Edwards of Nortel said restoring power after hurricanes and other disasters should be negotiated by utilities and telecom firms. “It is really case-by-case and the electric and telecom companies understand that,” he said. Telecom firms’ difficulties have been more with arranging fuel delivery for backup generators, he said. If telephone firms know how long it will take to restore power, they can arrange fuel delivery, he said, adding that EPA limits fuel storage. His task force will examine such issues as the type of communications power utilities can use in extended power outages, and better batteries and better fuel cells, he added.

There’s potential for conflict between the need for power for emergency communications and EPA environmental impact concerns, said Barron. TEPITF has discussed above- and below-ground fuel storage limits and EPA curbs on generator exhaust emissions. “They are looking at restrictions on how long you can run those generators. Obviously there needs to be a balance between environmental concerns and the communications concerns,” Barron said. Long term, he said, TEPITF wants to see better battery and fuel cell technology, easing heavy dependence on generators. “Is there a better way than having more generators? We don’t have the answer to that but for the long term we need to address the ever growing need and the interdependency between telecom and electric power,” he said. As “next generation” networks evolve, he said, “we see their growing criticality and growing interdependency on electric power.”

APPA’s Hyland said focus on restoration will delay the learning process from Katrina and Rita. But past lessons, such as from 9/11, include establishing communications with all sectors, including telecom, fire, power utilities and the Red Cross as a city opens an emergency operations center. DHS has asked all sectors to set up Information Sharing & Analysis Centers (ISACs), he said. The power ISAC is run by the N. American Electric Reliability Council (NERC).

Underground vs. Overhead Argument Resurfaces

As power and telecom firms dissect the causes for prolonged breakdowns, especially in New Orleans, age-old arguments for underground cables are resurfacing. Some city-owned utilities are seeking alternatives like satellite to maintain communications in long power outages.

Lafayette didn’t suffer the kind of communications loss New Orleans did. But as “we watched in virtual horror as their communications systems basically become rubble, we began looking at our emergency plan to see what would happen if we had a direct hit,” said Terry Huval, dir. of the city-owned Lafayette Utilities System. An option being considered by the utility, now building a fiber-to-the-home network, is using satellite communications in emergencies, he added. Several firms operating in Lafayette provide satellite communications to offshore oil rigs, he said: “So it’s that type of things we are looking at.”

With Hurricane Katrina snapping all communications and power lines, “satellite is only going to be your only phone,” said APPA’s Hyland, a member of the Critical Infrastructure Protection Group for the electric sector. The problem with satellite phones, he said, is cost: “How many do you buy; who gets them?” But in situations as those in New Orleans, where there was no communications, satellite may be the only way, he said. As Lafayette moves forward, costs and benefits will become clearer, he said.

Burying power and communications lines isn’t a panacea, experts said. Underground cables aren’t obviously susceptible to wind and tree damage, said TEPITF Chmn. Edwards. But in low-lying areas, underground cables are vulnerable to ground water, he added. The task force hasn’t taken a stance on the issue, he said, partly because it’s a matter of “physical design.” The panel has stated the “obvious,” he said; that in places where wind or trees are a problem burying is better and in low-lying areas it’s a “decision the local operator has to make.” Burying cables ups costs by a factor of 10, said Hyland: “It is an economic decision.” Residents of New Orleans, where power and communications lines are underground, wish they had overhead lines now, he said. “Because so much water had gotten in every piece of equipment has to be replaced now.” Even in normal outages, restoring underground cables takes longer, he said: “Anytime you pull a line underground, you have to rerun the whole line again, and that’s hard.” Underground cables help, said Lafayette’s Huval, but no guarantee against disruption. When trees come down, roots pull up buried electric, telecom, water and sewage lines, he added.

Some utility executives are debating the usefulness of broadband over power line (BPL) technology in internal applications such as automatic outage reporting that help speed power restoration. “I don’t think in most cases it’s going to help you much,” said Hyland, especially with a storm of Katrina’s size. Besides, utilities don’t have to rely entirely in BPL to do automatic outage reporting, he said. Many utilities have had such systems, he said, with some implanting radio devices in meters. Automatic outage reporting is one of the important applications of BPL that would enhance reliability and efficiency of utilities, said Steve Green, dir.-regulatory affairs for Amperion, a BPL technology provider. But for a catastrophic storm such as Katrina, he said, “I am not sure exactly how that would impact.”