Salt River Project employees will deploy this weekend to help guide and coordinate ongoing efforts to rebuild Puerto Rico’s power grid in the wake of Hurricane Maria’s devastation.

SRP will lead and collaborate with Austin Energy to provide one of seven regional Incident Management Teams (IMT) for the next two months on behalf of the American Public Power Association. The IMT will consist of eight SRP employees and two from Austin Energy.

Under an Incident Command Structure, seven 10-person IMTs have been formed to assist the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority with direction from a central command center in San Juan to manage and coordinate the approximately 3,500 utility field workers currently deployed on the island in seven regions. SRP has committed to two deployments with team members working for 30 consecutive days during each rotation. The second deployment is scheduled for early January.

Employees will depart at staggered times and locations on Friday, Dec. 8, and Sunday, Dec. 10. They are available for media interviews in advance upon request.

SRP is a strong supporter of the Western Regional Mutual Assistance group. The last time SRP assisted another utility in restoring power because of a major natural disaster was in November 2012. More than 60 SRP employees spent two weeks working alongside Long Island Power Authority and other utilities replacing damaged power poles, overhead lines and damaged electrical equipment as more than 1 million customers in the New York region lost power during Hurricane Sandy.