Most electric utility mutual aid programs move crews only after the damage is confirmed. That's the pattern whether you're waiting on state-to-state authorization while the damage is assessed, or holding pre-staged crews until they are requested in the storm's wake. The Northeast Public Power Association (NEPPA) works to decrease outage times through an expedited process. NEPPA is a small New England electric utility trade association located in Littleton, Mass. 

Although headquartered nowhere near the Gulf or the Southeast, during the 2024 hurricane season NEPPA sent 115 people from 35 member utilities into nine states over 22 days, including a group pre-staged into Orlando before Milton made landfall. Among every mutual aid association in the country, it ranked fourth for activity.

Hear how Mike Hyland, Executive Director of NEPPA, did it with Veoci. He walks through how a small organization gets outside help moving before the storm hits rather than after it, and what has to be built in advance for that to be possible.

The Insights:

• Hours to minutes — the pre-built process that puts a mutual aid request out before the damage report comes in.
• How NEPPA committed crews to Orlando while Milton was still a forecast, and what had to be built in advance to make that call possible.
• A response workflow simple enough that your least technical, offline responders answer "yes" or "no" in seconds.
• Why an association nowhere near the Gulf or the Southeast finished fourth in the country for activity, and what that says about how far a small membership can actually reach.
• Where Veoci sits underneath all of it, and how these workflows hold up across member utilities when the pressure is highest.