As Winter Storm Jonas moved into the East Coast this past weekend, western and southern states have begun to send their electric crews east and north to help with outage restoration. For example, Tampa Electric from Florida has sent about 250 workers to North Carolina to help Duke Energy Carolinas deal with outages. Commonwealth Edison, based in Illinois, has also sent more than 200 crews to help east coast utilities. Without any new training, these workers can jump onto almost any system and get to work... all thanks to standards.

What? Standards?

Merriam-Webster defines “Standard” as something set up and established by authority as a rule for the measure of quantity, weight, extent, value, or quality. Most of us are taught about the idea of “standards” in grade school when we learned about Eli Whitney’s idea of interchangeable parts at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, where parts are made to comply with a set of specifications, or standards.

Many of us live our lives without paying much attention to standards. However, a host of standards governs the utility industry.

The National Electrical Safety Code, published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) sets the standards for construction and maintenance of utility poles and their equipment. ANSI, ASTM, and American Wood Protection Association (AWPA) specifications set the criteria for the preservation processes for wooden utility poles. ANSI standard 05.1.2008 governs wood pole sizes and strength loading. The list goes on.

I have had a host of opportunities to interact with people that design standards; most recently, it was a conference on standards for transactive energy. Honestly, it is not my cup of tea. However, without standards, people who lost power during Winter Storm Jonas may be in the dark for a much longer period of time.