By Korby Keeney
From thousand-meter cooperatives to million-meter IOUs, a major storm can stretch any utility thin.
As crews handle urgent priorities—clearing downed lines, rerouting power—they’re also juggling resource management. Sourcing, staffing, and staging: these pieces are each crucial to progress, but time-consuming enough to pull focus from the bigger mission.
Fortunately, there’s a better way. By outsourcing responsibilities to a trusted distribution partner, utilities can free up internal capacity and stay focused on what matters most: getting the lights back on.
Let’s look at four moments when bringing in outside support makes sense for large-scale storm response.
1. Translating Damage into Material Needs
In rapid restoration, utility crews are busy reviewing outage maps, assessing damage in the field, and relaying updates back to the team. Little time is left to translate those reports into consolidated, accurate material lists.
That’s where an experienced partner comes in. Using deep industry knowledge, a distributor can translate damage assessments into specific SKUs to order material quickly.
Crews get exactly what they need, when and where they need it. Most importantly, they get it quickly.
2. Sourcing and Substituting Materials
Once material lists are built, the next challenge is availability. A distributor brings three critical advantages here:
- Prioritized materials requests through strong manufacturer relationships
- A knowledgeable team that can dig into specs and suggest substitutions when standard items or parts are out of stock
- A cross-country network of branches that can ship material to affected areas at a moment’s notice
This assistance allows purchasing, operations, and engineering departments to stay focused on higher-yield tasks. Simultaneously, it can free mutual aid line workers from material requisitioning, so that they can concentrate on outages.
3. Securing Additional Workforce
With materials flowing quickly to staging sites, utilities hit another crunch point: they need people on site to keep everything moving. But finding and managing those labor resources becomes an extra burden for internal teams.
Tasks like marshalling material at staging sites, unloading deliveries, and controlling traffic are essential, but they don’t require certified line crews or otherwise occupied management. A reliable partner has trained, safety-minded personnel ready to step in and handle these roles, leaving utility teams to focus on restoration.
4. Replenishing After the Disaster Lastly, there’s the task of reconciliation—returning to “blue sky days” after power has been restored. Temporary sites must be cleaned up. Longer lead time items need to be replenished quickly. Emergency inventory should be back online and ready for the next event. A well-rounded partner can help in this division too, expediting both the material and the manpower to reconcile, reorganize, and restock. Restoring power after a major disaster is never simple, but it doesn’t have to fall entirely on the utility team. With the right partner, utilities can reduce strain, keep material flowing, and concentrate on the bigger picture. |
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Irby serves as this trusted partner for cooperatives, municipalities, and IOUs nationwide, filling in resource gaps to build a swift, complete disaster response. Our managed fleet, proactive response, and agile team are ready to step in and scale up wherever needed, from procuring materials to filling staging yards with boots-on-the-ground support.
We bring flexibility, speed, and precision to every response, so your team can focus on restoring power to your people.
About the Author:
Korby Keeney has honed the skill of building utility partnerships for over three decades. As SVP of Irby's Utility Sales, he manages relationships with Distribution and Transmission utilities, develops strategic alliances, and leads major tactical projects to sustain business objectives.