PUC Looks Into Power Outage Responses Following Ice Storm
By John McDevitt
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Can there be lessons learned from the way the power outage response was handled after the recent ice storm? Pennsylvania's Public Utility Commission is conducting a comprehensive review to find out.
The purpose of the investigation is not to point the finger, but to see if any improvements can be made predicting or handling power outages.
"We'll go to the utilities, we'll ask them for information, we'll go to the local agencies, local emergency responders, local elected officials, because it's something that they have a perception on how things went as well," says Jennifer Kocher, press secretary for the PUC.
Kohker says there is no agenda with this review:
"This is standard operating procedure. This is something after every major outage event. We did this after Irene, Lee, Sandy, we will do it after the ice storm."
She says typically it takes about six months until all the information is gathered and processed before what was learned is made public.
