By Christopher Piccolo, HEXstream utilities industry specialist

I’ve spent much of my career in electric utility operations, including storm response at every level, from field operations to system operations to enterprise technology. When major incidents hit and mutual aid crews roll in by the thousands, one truth becomes clear very quickly: success or failure has far less to do with how many crews you have and far more to do with how well you manage logistics and process.

Utilities across the industry are still relying on tools and workflows that were never designed for the scale, speed, or scrutiny of today’s storm events. As storms grow more frequent, restoration expectations rise, and regulators demand deeper accountability, these gaps are no longer just inconvenient. They are operational risks.

Onboarding: Spreadsheet chaos at the worst possible time

When mutual aid crews arrive, onboarding is often handled through emailed spreadsheets bouncing back and forth between utilities and contractors. Credentials, crew composition, equipment details, and lodging assignments live in dozens of versions of the same file. Utility teams then scramble to manually upload or re-enter that data into systems of record.

This approach is slow, error-prone, and completely misaligned with the urgency of storm response. Every delay in onboarding delays productive work in the field. Worse, once errors enter the system, they cascade into payroll, logistics, reporting, and cost recovery.

Work packages: Paper in a digital emergency

Despite modern outage management systems, many mutual aid crews remain non-mobile from a systems perspective. Work packages are printed, texted, or verbally relayed. Updates from the field lag reality by hours, sometimes longer.

This disconnect prevents real-time updates to outage management systems and damages situational awareness in control rooms and emergency operations centers. Customers receive outdated restoration estimates, leadership lacks confidence in the data, and field supervisors are forced to work around the system instead of with it.

Food and lodging: Morale is an operational variable

Ask any storm crew what they care about most after safety, and the answer is consistent: where am I eating and where am I sleeping.

Tracking food, lodging, and crew movements for thousands of workers across wide geographies is one of the most difficult tasks utility logistics teams face. When this information is fragmented across emails, whiteboards, and disconnected tools, crews get frustrated, time is lost, and productivity suffers. Happy crews are productive crews, and logistics directly affect restoration speed.

Communications: Finding the right number shouldn’t be hard

During storm response, simply figuring out who to call can be a challenge. Crew leads change, contact lists are outdated, and phone numbers live in personal devices instead of shared systems.

When utilities cannot reliably reach mutual aid crews, coordination breaks down. Updates slow, priorities drift, and leadership loses confidence in the information flowing upward.

Tracking: If you can’t see the crews, you can’t manage the work

Because many mutual aid crews are effectively non-mobile, knowing where crews are and what they are working on is often guesswork. This makes it nearly impossible to measure progress, reassign resources effectively, or answer basic questions during executive briefings.

Without accurate tracking, utilities are forced to rely on manual check-ins and assumptions. That is not a sustainable model for large-scale incident response.

Timesheets: The honor system isn’t enough anymore

Storm timesheets are often generic, showing long shifts with little detail about actual work performed. This makes it difficult to assess crew effectiveness, validate costs, or respond confidently during audits.

As storm costs increase and regulatory scrutiny intensifies, utilities need better visibility into how time is spent, not just how many hours were billed.

Regulatory reporting: The bill comes due after the storm

All of these gaps surface again during cost recovery. Regulators ask detailed questions about who did what, where, and when. Too often, utilities are left piecing together documentation from incomplete systems and manual records.

The result is delayed recovery, challenged claims, and unnecessary friction with regulators, all stemming from poor process during the storm itself.

A better way forward

Storm response will always be complex, but the tools and processes supporting it do not have to be. End-to-end visibility, mobile-first workflows, and integrated logistics are no longer optional.

HEXstream’s HEXaid platform was built specifically to address these challenges. From onboarding and crew tracking to work execution, logistics, timesheets, and regulatory-ready reporting, HEXaid replaces fragmented manual processes with a single, purpose-built solution designed for real-world utility operations.

Utilities owe it to their crews, their customers, and their regulators to modernize how mutual aid is managed. Logistics is the key to successful deployment. The technology to support it already exists.

CLICK HERE TO CONTACT US ABOUT HOW HEXAID CAN OPTIMIZE YOUR OUTAGE-RESPONSE STRATEGIES.