Electric power is an important part of making sure your home and business operate and IPL is the power you depend on. When compared to other investor-owned utilities in the state, IPL’s reliability figures are the best in the state in every reliability index, according to the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission’s 2008 Reliability Report,
IPL was the top performer in the state for each of three industry reliability indexes. These measures of success showed that:
• IPL customers experienced an average of less than 2 outages (1.54) of more than 2 minutes in 2008, whereas the average among other Indiana investor-owned utilities was 2.06.
• The average amount of minutes that IPL customers were without power for the year was 358.98, compared to the average for other Indiana investor-owned utilities of more than 14.98 hours.
The metrics on this page reflect the severe storm year that Indiana endured in 2008. IPL and its customers experienced three major storms with wind speeds greater than 50 mph causing more than 10% of IPL customers to have an outage per storm. Two of the storms were due to high winds and lightning and the third was the result of strong winds from the remnants of Hurricane Ike. 2008 was the first time that three major storms of this intensity occurred in the same year. IPL also experienced 21 minor weather events during 2008 compared to 13 during 2007.
Regardless of the cause, when the power does go out, IPL is dedicated to restoring it as quickly and safely as possible, but preventing outages is the key to our success. Preventive efforts influencing IPL’s strong reliability performance include line clearing, system design and maintenance.
Response time
IPL crews are on the job 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, and additional resources are made available when severe weather threatens.
Line-clearing
IPL’s tree-trimming program keeps branches away from lines to prevent outages caused by falling trees or tree branches. In addition, trimming trees helps reduce outages caused by small animals such as squirrels.
System design
IPL’s delivery system is designed to increase reliability and minimize outages. The restoration process may be expedited through the use of switches on distribution lines, which provide IPL the ability to isolate the outage to a minimum number of services. All the while, IPL tests and investigates products to find better technology to enhance the reliability of its system.
Overall system review and maintenance
The system review process typically includes circuit design modeling, line patrol, visual inspections, infrared testing, radio frequency interference testing, and/or historical fault assessment. The review process may identify the need for additional tree trimming, load balancing, equipment installation, maintenance and switching.
