NNEC Commits to ODIN

In November of 2022, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy issued a Call to Action for over 3,000 utilities in the United States to share power outage data with the Outage Data Initiative Nationwide (ODIN). In January, Northern Neck Electric Cooperative (NNEC) committed to ODIN becoming the first co-op in Virginia to join. As part of the commitment, NNEC will provide real-time, standardized, and transparent power outage data with ODIN.

ODIN seeks to establish comprehensive digital reporting standards for power outage data to enable utilities and others to exchange data freely with designated stakeholders at all levels. The program, led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Electricity, provides a common operating picture to improve emergency response in extreme storms, allows the government to deploy resources more effectively, and increases transparency for members and the news media. Additionally, the Department of Energy can analyze the data to inform investments in improving reliability.

“Our co-op has chosen to commit to ODIN with a goal of providing easy-to-use, localized, near real-time, standardized outage data to members, public safety officials, and the general public building on our prior successes of communicating our outages to members,” says Brad Hicks, president and CEO of NNEC. “We are proud to commit to ODIN, the Department of Energy, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.”

To view the ODIN map visit the ODIN website.