Southwest Gas has announced details of the new communication tools it promised to customers after many were outraged when they lost service in February's record cold weather.
The cold snap led to freeze-related problems at natural gas wellheads in Texas, which is where Arizona receives its gas, at a time of high demand. The outage in parts of Tucson and Sierra Vista began on Feb. 3, and gas was restored to 90 percent of customers four days later.
The Arizona Corporation Commission questioned Southwest Gas officials in March after numerous customers complained that Southwest did not update its website for two days after the outage began and did not communicate when crews would be in neighborhoods to fix the problems.
"There was no real communication between the utility company and ratepayers," said Commissioner Sandra D. Kennedy.
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Southwest Gas officials have now reported to the commission on the upgrades they've made, which they hope will provide updates to customers in a more effective way and in real-time.
"We have an annual meeting with the ACC to report on winter preparedness and we showed them the improvements we've made since that freeze," utility spokeswoman Libby Howell said Friday.
The details:
• Southwest Gas upgraded its existing News Bulletin and Outage Mapping System to allow for quicker and more complete emergency updates and information on outages and service restoration. These bulletins will link to maps of affected customers and estimated service restoration time.
• The company acquired a program that allows automated outbound calls to customers in case of emergency situations.
• Customers can also get updates on social media sites. This system was tested during the Monument Fire in Sierra Vista this summer.
• With bill stuffers, Southwest Gas will regularly remind customers to notify the company if a medically fragile person lives in the household. This will allow those households to have service restored first, in the event of an outage.
• For those who call in for service, Southwest Gas will incorporate emergency information into the "on hold" messages.
• The company is looking into, but hasn't added, text-message notification and other tools.
"So these are just first steps and I'm glad to see that they've put emphasis on making these things happen," Commissioner Kennedy said. "They've tried to work out the kinks, but have they all been worked out? We won't know until another incident happens, but we pray we won't have another."
More than 950,000 Southwest Gas customers live in Arizona.
Michelle A. Monroe is a University of Arizona journalism student and a NASA Space Grant intern. Contact her at mmonroe@azstarnet.com