Transmission line emergency restoration philosophy at Los Angeles Department of Water and Power

An essential question for any utility is whether to maintain their in-house emergency capability for line restoration or whether to depend on subcontractors and outside sources for this service. Every utility should consciously address and decide which plan is the most realistic for their particular situation. In doing so a number of factors come into play such as: the size of the utility, the availability of subcontractors who can be depended upon during emergency, whether there are other utilities willing to enter into mutual assistance plans, and of course, cost-benefit of the plan. This paper describes how the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) has chosen to maintain its in-house capability as the solution to this concern, including what they see as the critical success factors to maintaining their in-house capability. Several incidents of overhead transmission line (OHTL) failures and emergency restorations are presented demonstrating these critical success factors.