Macrosoft Inc., has introduced a new and unique national electric outage tracking system, OutageCentral.com. For the first time, a free web site pulls together thousands of pieces of information to give utility executives, contractors, news media and the general public comprehensive electric outage information, severe weather alerts and outage news across the nation. The site provides real time maps and outage data to allow users to quickly and easily find outage information in geographic areas of interest.
Now when a storm is threatening one area of the country, emergency personnel are, in addition to tracking critical information about the strength and direction of the storm, now able to ascertain the damage it has already caused in other locations.
"Seeing how others are impacted by the same weather system moving your way gives storm responders a jump on restoration planning and therefore a jump on actual restoration," said Jason Singer, director of Macrosoft's Utility Practice. "Emergency responders can quickly compile a great deal of useful information from Outage Central and layer it into their planning process."
Users only have to click on a state and select any of the listed utilities to find out the number of outages on their system, the location of the outages, weather alerts and news. This web access is provided at no cost to allow those involved in storm planning and restoration the critical information they need to make important decisions.
Outage Central is powered by Macrosoft and developed to complement Resources on-Demand (ROD). Specifically designed for electric utilities, ROD is a web browser-based, multi user tool that provides Utility decision makers with the "Industry Standard tool" to manage crews, other storm personnel, equipment, lodging, logistic support and the associated costs. Resources on-Demand is currently being used by numerous utilities in North America.
