The new Consumers Energy Power Outage map is at http://www.consumersenergy.com/outagemap. Here's a map with the service territory marked - there are no outages to speak of on the map right now. The page automatically switches to a mobile web view if you are coming from a smart mobile device (IOS and Android; not so much Blackberry). There are three views: one for individual detailed outages, one at a city level, and one at a county level. According to the webinar I'm listening to now, the detailed outages are running in real time, and the city/county overview is delayed up to 5 minutes.
For the media, this augments but does not replace the existing direct contacts to Consumers Energy public relations representatives who can answer questions.
For storms in Michigan that come from west to east, it will be useful to watch to see how badly the storm affects Consumers before it gets to Detroit Edison territory.
The Long Island Power Authority has not one but three maps showing power outages and restorations. I'm not sure which is most informative. Each of these are from the evening of Saturday, November 3, 2012. Please click through to the page linked for current updates.
Some news that goes along with this:
Newsday, Tuesday November 6: "Cuomo blasts delays in power restoration as 'unacceptable'"
Criticism of LIPA's outage map prompted the utility to produce a new format.
It came under intense heat and skepticism Monday after ratepayers noticed outages in their area were reported to be considerably smaller than they knew to be the case.
Hervey said LIPA sharply cut back the touted capability of the map to remove most interactivity, including restoration times in specific neighborhoods, and other details of outages, because the features weren't working.
Newsday, Monday Novmeber 5: "New storm, LIPA outages, gas lines frustrate LIers"
As he did last week, Cuomo expressed anger at utilities.
"The progress is unacceptable," he said. "I think that the utility companies have not performed adequately. The utilities are paid to provide service. They should have been prepared."
Newsday, Monday November 5: "Cuomo: Power restoration progress unacceptable"
LIPA chief operating officer Michael Hervey on Sunday acknowledged a large backlog in uploading current information to the outage system. Crews are focused on work, he said, but LIPA is working harder to get the information current and accurate.
That's not enough for Pat Davis, who was forced to evacuate her Merrick home because the family could not remain there with their 1-year-old as temperatures dropped below 50 degrees. She said the outage map shows only 1,000 outages in the neighborhood, but "I do not know anybody south of Merrick Road with power, as well as many north of Merrick Road without power."
Newsday, Monday November 5: "Protesters demonstrate outside of LIPA offices"
Their frustration at a boiling point over the lack of power in their homes, about 25 residents of North Woodmere, Woodmere Park and Cedarhurst marched on a LIPA customer service center in Hewlett Monday morning, demanding to be heard.
A sign on the door of the large National Grid/LIPA complex on Mill Road read: "This office is temporarily closed."
LIPA was reporting that 263,000 customers remained without power as of Monday morning, down from the high of 945,000 a week ago. The number excludes around 30,000 customers in the Rockaway Peninsula, Long Beach, Atlantic Beach, and Fire Island whose homes were so badly damaged they cannot take electric service.
The outage map, a critical link to many customers seeking information on their anticipated restoration time, has taken a skewering since the storm began. First it reported thousands more outages than some hamlets or villages had actual LIPA customers.
On day five of the largest outage in Long Island history, LIPA received unprecedented levels of reinforcements -- 900 line workers from Canada, Florida and Arizona, some airlifted here with their equipment, according to Hervey. The flights were arranged by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo working with federal officials. The total workforce is now well over 3,100 workers.
LIPA spokesman Mark Gross said the number of workers in the field would be 4,300 by this morning, with another 1,000 being added by day's end, which would be more workers than any prior LIPA restoration effort.
This dramatic map shows areas where power is out (in red), where it has been restored (in blue), and where there was never a service interruption (in grey). It's from the LIPAnews Facebook page and from the LIPA Storm Center map update from Saturday, November 3:
A second map from the LIPA Storm Center shows each separate outage or set of outages as a push pin. Notice how the map is quickly overwhelmed with problems.
A third LIPA Storm Center map counts the outages by town, with a pop-up menu offering to further detail the outages by village. I had a hard time loading this map, but here it is as of 11:18 p.m. Saturday, November 3, 2012.
No matter how you visualize it, 450,000+ people without power is a lot of power problems.
Hurricane Sandy hit the US East Coast earlier this week, knocking out power to more than 8 million subscribers. The damage to the infrastructure was so severe that it's expected to take more than a week to bring service back.
Here are a few of the better projects online to track the progress of service restoration.
NY Times
The New York Times is tracking power outages and restoration for the Con Edison service. They're pulling county by county data from the utility company web site and tracking and visualizing it over time. More detailed reporting also covers surrounding states, including hard-hit New Jersey and Long Island. Sample graphic:
Con Edison Charts
Another tracker for Con Edison outage information has been done by Cameron Cundiff (@ckundo) from Pivotal Labs. This one features source code on Github and a chart on stormpox.com.
iFactor’s Storm Center
The "Storm Center" application from iFactor powers the web sites for a number of the larger utilities affected by Hurricane Sandy. In Storm Center put to the test during Sandy, they discuss how the systems held up in the storm. Some 3,500,000 visits were logged to the mapping pages, and of those 20-50% were from mobile devices.
NYC Power Status
Does NYC have power? A simple page shows current restoration status by borough. "Con Edison is working on it." See nycpowerstatus.com.
Google Crisis Map
The Google Crisis Map for Superstorm Sandy has an overlay showing utility company outage sites, shown here in orange.
The trouble with utility outage tracking
The hardest part about tracking utility outages across a broad area is that there's wide variety in how each utility reports outages. It would be useful to a lot of organizations to have a single map covering the whole storm area, but instead we have little pieces of a big picture.
The 2:40am map from Wunderground is a good marker of things to come for the Ann Arbor area.
As always, for DTE power outage information, the DTE Power Outage map is a place to go. Our old analog meter was replaced by a digital one, so there's one additional point of non-mechanical failure to watch for. The page on DTE outage claims is worth noting.
SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED AFTER 2 AM AS A WARM FRONT LIFTS INTO THE REGION FROM THE SOUTH. THESE STORMS ARE NOT EXPECTED TO BE SEVERE. THE STRONGEST STORMS WILL BE CAPABLE OF PRODUCING WIND GUSTS TO 20 MPH AND PEA SIZED HAIL. THESE STORMS WILL MOVE TO THE NORTHEAST AROUND 30 MPH.
SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL NOT BE NEEDED TODAY AND TONIGHT.
Ann Arbor Rec and Ed notifies for cancellations on a page worth watching.
We got word via telephone this morning before school started that a power outage at Burns Park Elementary School (see map below, from the DTE outage map) has cancelled school for the day. The outage affects over 1400 customers in Burns Park, Lower Burns Park, and along South State Street. I can't tell from the map whether University of Michigan facilities are also affected, but the report from the dotcom is that traffic signals are also affected along Packard and on East Stadium near the Stadium Bridges project.
Details from the DTE outage information page:
Job ID: W11120700007 Estimated Restoration: Wed Dec 07 2011, 12 00 - Wed Dec 07 2011, 14 00 Off Since: Wed Dec 07 2011, 06 00 Last Update: Wed Dec 07 2011, 07 50 Cause: Area outage.
From: Liz Margolis, Ann Arbor Public Schools To: Burns Park Staff and Families
Burns Park is closed today. There is no power to the building and in the area. DTE is unable to give us an accurate time when the power will be restored. No school for staff or students, today, Wednesday, December 7.
We apologize for this late notice. The power went down at 6:40 this morning.
Thank you
Liz Margolis, Director of Communications, AAPS
