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Davis Journal

Mutual Assistance Agreement signed by Bountiful officials

Nov 08, 2021 10:12AM ● By Tom Haraldsen

The agreement will help with efforts to restore power in Bountiful in the event of a natural disaster or weather-related outage. Courtesy photo

BOUNTIFUL—When the windstorm of September 2020 ravaged parts of Davis County, there were shortages of personnel and equipment necessary to help restore power on local levels. That’s when officials in Bountiful City reached out to other municipalities and utilities for help, and their requests were answered in a noteworthy cooperative effort.

The city has now entered into the One Utah Mutual Assistance Agreement with the parent company of Rocky Mountain Power, the Utah Rural Electric Cooperative Association, and other entities belonging to URECA, along with the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems. The agreement basically offers protection for both receiving and assisting parties in the case of a natural or manmade disaster involving power.

“In the event of an emergency impacting the electric services of a Party, such Party (the “Requesting Party”) may request another Party (the “Assisting Party”) to provide assistance,” the agreement reads. “The request for assistance may be made by phone and shall be followed up in writing or by email. In the request, the Requesting Party shall set forth, to the extent reasonably practicable, the nature and scope of the assistance which is requested. The Assisting Party shall, in its sole discretion, determine if it shall provide assistance, including the extent and limitations of such assistance.”

Those Assisting Parties are not required to provide any such assistance that would be detrimental to their own communities or companies, and they have the right to recall assistance if necessary for their own operations.

  Provisions of the agreement include costs for services, and how the Receiving Party would need to reimburse any Assisting Party for costs for the operation, including food and lodging if necessary. There would not be a charge for fleet services such as trucks, digger derricks and backhoes unless the Receiving Party had rented such equipment. The Assisting Party would be responsible for all bookkeeping efforts, and be subject to any requested audits. Charges would need to be inline with the standard pricing practices already in place with Assisting Parties.

Allen Johnson, director of Bountiful Power, called the agreement “pretty monumental in that it’s the first agreement we’ll have that includes PacifiCorp. A year ago, manpower was hard to find and they had to bring people in even from Texas to help. We’re prone to wind and probably will have wind again and this agreement allows for help to go back and forth between entities.”

Gov. Spencer Cox was scheduled to sign the agreement at the Utah State Capitol on Thursday afternoon, after our press deadline.