"Do NOT change my metrics on me."
The Chief of Engineers for USACE - our 3-Star General boss - looked down the table at the Colonel in charge of bringing power back to the island. His tone brooked no argument. None came.
"I understand that you want to figure out how many customers are coming online - how many houses there are with electricity as a result of the work we are doing here. But if that becomes your measuring stick, then I am in the position of changing what my measuring stick is. The result will be that what I promised is something that we no longer track or value.
LTG Semonite has a good point, and it is one we fight every day. How do we measure the work we are doing? And how do we communicate it?
Truth is, to the people in the village, to the press, to the governor, it is hard to see the value in metrics like Instant Max Load As Percentage of Historic Average Load. But that is what we promised at the beginning, and it makes sense. We are working to restore the system to its pre-disaster condition, with some additional safety and redundancy built in. But our goal is to be able to demonstrate that we have achieved 95% of the electrical load on the system by the end of February. That means that historically, Puerto Rico was generating around 2500MW of power and transmitting that across the grid, around the island. Today, we have restored power to the whole system to the tune of 1700MW of power. We are currently (see what I did there?) at 68% of the electrical load.
Most of that is going to the metro areas, to industry, and a fair amount of it is simply potential - not connected to the Last Mile at all.
Because we have been taking so much static (see what I did there?) in the press and from the local political folk, we are trying to translate our work into more understandable measuring sticks. Grid repair, no matter how you do it, is a difficult thing to measure.
Miles of lines is a meaningless measure. Great, thank you Corps of Engineers, for adding ten miles of transmissionline. When do I get to plug in my fridge?
Historic load, equally meaningless. Puerto Rico's grid is at 75% of historic load? Awesome, Corps of Engineers. Well done. Can I plug my fridge in tonight?
So we look for other ways of communicating it:
How many customers have lights?
What proportion of the island is lighted?
How much of each metro area has power?
But when we do, we stray from what we were supposed to do. And the Chief has to remind us. "Stay the course."
In not unrelated news, we are getting some resistance (see what I... never mind) about the work that we are doing. The sister agency who is funding our work is considering removing all of the funding we have for distribution work - the lower-wattage lines - and making us focus on the high-power lines.
This is part of what we have been discussing all along. What is our part in the overall effort? When are we done? Can we finish it in the time allotted and not leave the island with an asterisk?
If we make this change, then we will be looking at making a wholesale change at how we approach the remaining work. We will not be responsible for the last mile. We will not be doing the work to turn the electricity on in people's houses. We will restore the grid, and leave the small crews from 'Industry" to complete the work.
But the mark remains on the wall. 95% still belongs to us, regardless of who has the charge (grins to himself at yet another electricity pun) of finishing up the distribution tasks.
The Chief of Engineers for USACE - our 3-Star General boss - looked down the table at the Colonel in charge of bringing power back to the island. His tone brooked no argument. None came.
"I understand that you want to figure out how many customers are coming online - how many houses there are with electricity as a result of the work we are doing here. But if that becomes your measuring stick, then I am in the position of changing what my measuring stick is. The result will be that what I promised is something that we no longer track or value.
"Stay the course."
"Yes, sir."
LTG Semonite has a good point, and it is one we fight every day. How do we measure the work we are doing? And how do we communicate it?
Truth is, to the people in the village, to the press, to the governor, it is hard to see the value in metrics like Instant Max Load As Percentage of Historic Average Load. But that is what we promised at the beginning, and it makes sense. We are working to restore the system to its pre-disaster condition, with some additional safety and redundancy built in. But our goal is to be able to demonstrate that we have achieved 95% of the electrical load on the system by the end of February. That means that historically, Puerto Rico was generating around 2500MW of power and transmitting that across the grid, around the island. Today, we have restored power to the whole system to the tune of 1700MW of power. We are currently (see what I did there?) at 68% of the electrical load.
Most of that is going to the metro areas, to industry, and a fair amount of it is simply potential - not connected to the Last Mile at all.
Because we have been taking so much static (see what I did there?) in the press and from the local political folk, we are trying to translate our work into more understandable measuring sticks. Grid repair, no matter how you do it, is a difficult thing to measure.
Miles of lines is a meaningless measure. Great, thank you Corps of Engineers, for adding ten miles of transmissionline. When do I get to plug in my fridge?
Historic load, equally meaningless. Puerto Rico's grid is at 75% of historic load? Awesome, Corps of Engineers. Well done. Can I plug my fridge in tonight?
So we look for other ways of communicating it:
How many customers have lights?
What proportion of the island is lighted?
How much of each metro area has power?
But when we do, we stray from what we were supposed to do. And the Chief has to remind us. "Stay the course."
In not unrelated news, we are getting some resistance (see what I... never mind) about the work that we are doing. The sister agency who is funding our work is considering removing all of the funding we have for distribution work - the lower-wattage lines - and making us focus on the high-power lines.
This is part of what we have been discussing all along. What is our part in the overall effort? When are we done? Can we finish it in the time allotted and not leave the island with an asterisk?
If we make this change, then we will be looking at making a wholesale change at how we approach the remaining work. We will not be responsible for the last mile. We will not be doing the work to turn the electricity on in people's houses. We will restore the grid, and leave the small crews from 'Industry" to complete the work.
But the mark remains on the wall. 95% still belongs to us, regardless of who has the charge (grins to himself at yet another electricity pun) of finishing up the distribution tasks.
2 comments:
At least somewhere people are talking about the ACE restoring power in PR. As far as I have seen in the mainland media you are non-existent. I read the Washington Post and the NYT, generally watch an on-air national news broadcast 2 or 3 times a week. Yet, had I not seen your posts I would have no idea the work is being done! As for who has the responsibility for the last mile and the metrics, I suspect the people who have no electricity in their homes could care less. That sort of communication disconnect is part of the reason for the results of the last election. Thank you, Crorey and your colleagues, for the work you are doing.
Peggy, that is discouraging. With the work occupying my time literally twelve hours a day, seven days a week, it is hard to fathom that the world is revolving around anything else.
You are right, of course. If the family without power suddenly gets electricity, then the logistics and turf wars that might have preceded the happy moment will be of no concern. But while they wait....
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