Tips & News - Winter 2017

THERE ARE MANY TYPES OF STORMS (TORNADOS, HURRICANES, ICE, ETC.). IS ONE CATEGORY MORE CHALLENGING THAN OTHERS IN TERMS OF STORM RESPONSE? Each typeof emergencyhas its’ ownnuances toaddress. However, hurricanes and ice storms present the most challenges. Hurricanes affect wider areas, are slower moving and impact a greater number of customers. During ice storms, the ice may linger well after the initial storm causing travel and work to remain hazardous for a long period of time. The experience of the HPS distribution center load planners and managers allows us to navigate the chaos of a storm and communicate issues and concerns to customer service and the customer in a timely and concise manner. Many utilities may experience an emergency outage once every four to five years, but during that same timeframe HPS has responded to 16-20 emergency events throughout the US. With that experience and our drive for continuous improvement, each and every emergency provides an opportunity to implement improvements. We understand that everyone wants the “easy” button and our job is to figure out what that button is for each customer. We are continuously looking at process, documentation and communication methods that can help make working with HPS easier. MANY OF OUR EMPLOYEES IN THE DISTRIBUTION CENTER AND IN CUSTOMER SERVICE VOLUNTEER DURING STORMRESPONSE. WHATWOULD YOU SAY IS THE DRIVING FORCE BEHIND THAT GENEROSITY? The employees in the distribution center have all personally experienced power outages for varying lengths of time, so they understand the hardships even with a short term loss of power. That experience helps drive them to provide a quick response to our customers. We know our work directly helps people. We are not delivering a toy to a store shelf or a bolt in a hardware store, but rather getting the lights back on, making sure food doesn’t go bad, keeping people warm, clean and dry. We are helping people in our communities. “ WHAT IS THE ONE THING THAT YOU THINK HPS DOES, LOGISTICALLY, THAT SETS US APART?

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16 | HUBBELL POWER SYSTEMS