Southern Power District 2007 Annual Report

Communications Update:

This year offered a crash course in the basics of emergency communication. The ice storm not only gave us the challenge of providing critical information to thousands of people, but the unthinkable challenge of communicating to those people when they had no power! We took advantage of every tool available to us, including local media, the internet, our telephone system and shared information with our employees, so the could provide consistent, timely information when face to face with customers. I have had the chance to visit with customers, employees, and even communicators from other districts to talk about what worked well, and what needs improvement. With the experience of the ice storm and the information I’ve learned from others, I think we have potential to do even better next time.

This year, we implemented an up-do-date design for our website, and have added some new features. We have added a page that will be activated in the event of a major outage, called “Storm Connection”. When activated, it will provide up to the minute updates relating to the issues at hand. We have also added safety information, customer surveys, and an easier to navigate site to help you find the information you need. The website will be an ongoing project and we will continue to add new features.

Once again this year, we paused to express our gratitude to our customers for allowing us to serve them. We held celebrations in Holdrege and Aurora this year at each of these communities fairground facilities. The days’ activities included lunch, hotline safety demonstrations, bucket truck rides, and compact fluorescent lamp information and giveaways.

Other information inside the 2007 Annual Report