By Jamal Syed, HEXstream president and CEO 

Utilities operate differently than most enterprises. That’s their strength.  

Let me explain...  

Most enterprises work in competition with one another, striving to outdo their peers with better service or better products. Utilities, on the other hand, work collectively with other utilities, sharing new ideas, and techniques to deliver optimal service to their respective communities.  

This unique situation is being tested in our changing world, where climate change is creating more frequent and more severe crisis scenarios—power outages caused by severe storms, cold snaps that cripple grids, or wildfires that destroy distribution assets as they threaten lives.  

Utility camaraderie is more critical than ever. And as outage recovery becomes more challenging, our approaches to these partnerships must evolve as well.  

Modern utilities are embracing smarter strategies related to mutual aid—the descriptor for scenarios in which utilities partner with emergency-response teams and solution providers and other utilities to build teams that can rapidly, efficiently overcome dangerous outage events. This partnership takes the form of shared best practices and processes, shared teams of skilled personnel, shared assets and vehicles.  

And, increasingly as we witnessed at the DTECH Conference earlier this month, utilities are looking for data-driven solutions to empower them to properly build and manage mutual-aid teams.  

Utilities know that mutual-aid teams are needed. They just need a platform to make those teams work.  

This demand spurred us to create HEXaid, our new platform that streamlines the coordination and management of mutual-aid crews during storm events. HEXaid connects utility companies with qualified contractor crews and fellow utilities during emergencies, ensuring rapid response when communities need power restored most urgently. 

HEXaid empowers utilities to rapidly, easily marshal the right assets and personnel for the type and breadth of emergency response they need. It empowers response teams to fully understand the geography and demands of the project they are racing to assist. It provides a simple communication channel in which teams are updated in real time, assignments are clearly allocated, progress is tracked and even lodging and meals are planned.   

Historically, these efforts have been made ad hoc, during times of intense crisis, with insufficient planning and uneven communication. No longer. As global scenarios create new demand for smarter outage response, we present the tools needed for utilities to deliver just that...smarter mutual aid that empowers all stakeholders to not just weather modern storms and wildfires, but excel as they overcome them.  

I welcome you to HEXaid Week, in which we celebrate the launch of our new platform and invite you to explore all the ways that mutual-aid teams can control the chaos of outage events.  

CLICK HERE TO CONNECT WITH US TO LEARN HOW HEXAID CAN WORK AT YOUR ENTERPRISE.