An increase in major natural disasters—and the growing number of damaging events involving gas, electric, water, and other utilities—has led to heightened concerns about utility operations and public safety. Due to today's complex, compliance-based environment, utility managers and planners often find it difficult to plan for the action needed to help ensure organization-wide resilience and meet consumer expectations during these incidents. Emergency Planning Guide for Utilities, Second Edition offers a working guide that presents new and field-tested approaches to plan development, training, exercising, and emergency program management.
The book will help utility planners, trainers, and responders—as well as their vendors and suppliers—to more effectively prepare for damaging events and improve the level of the utility’s resilience. It also focuses on planning needed in the National Incident Management System and ICS environment that many utilities are embracing going forward. In doing so, utilities will be able to improve the customer experience while reducing the impact that damaging events have on the utility’s infrastructure, people, and resources.
INTRODUCTION AND USE OF THE GUIDE
Introduction
Opening Remarks
Primary Learning Objectives
Introduction to the Second Edition
Organization of Topics
Using the Guide with Other Resources
Emergency Programs and Resilience
Your Plan for Your Company
Models for Plan Development
Closing Notes for Using This Guide
PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE OF EMERGENCY PLANNING
Looking Back
Roots of Emergency Planning
Need for Change: Developing More Effective Plans
Agency Involvement
NIMS and the Incident Command System
Where Are We Now?
Current Planning Needs for the Utility
Planning for Resilience
Planning for Technology Advancements
Maintaining Compliance and Preparedness
Evaluating Systems for Planning Requirements
Summary of Steps to Consider
What Can We Expect?
Use of Technology: Before, during, and after Damaging Events
METHODS AND DYNAMICS OF EMERGENCY PLANNING
Risk Studies and Analysis
Why Are Risk Studies Important?
Assessing Risks for the Utility
Conducting the Vulnerability and Risk Study
Using Metrics and Qualifying Data
Eliminating Gaps in Preparedness
Leveraging the Risk Study and Analysis
Implementing the Emergency Planning Process
Emergency Planning Guidelines
What Are Emergency Plans?
Preparedness versus Response
Peacetime versus Real-Time Planning
Key Objectives for Plans
Steps to Develop a Plan
Emergency Plan Development (EPD) Model
Training and Exercising
Training Response Personnel
Programs to Enhance Preparedness
Analyze Training Programs, Feedback, and Metrics to Enhance Training Programs
Why Feedback Is Essential to Development and How to Use It
When You Hold a Drill or Exercise
Exercises; Measure and Analyze Results
Revising the Plan
Keeping the Plan Current
Publish Revisions
Maintaining Improvement in the Emergency Program
Packaging and Issuing Revisions; Ensuring People Have the Right Plans
Maintain Quality Control Now and in the Years Ahead
The Corporate Emergency Preparedness Program: An Essential Program for Utilities
Prepared Organization Models: The Prepared Organization Response Model
Approaching Organization-Wide Plan Development: Coordinating Plans
Budgeting for Preparedness
Affiliation with Agencies during Disaster Recovery
Backup Power Systems
Post-storm Damage Assessment: Tabulating Accurate Results
Emergency Communications
Emergency Communications: How Will You Handle It?
Media Communications
Communications Systems
The Most Important Asset in Recovery: People
Mobilizing the Response
Essential Notifications
Crisis Decision Making: Better Decision Making in Utilities
Stress and Decision Making
Site Emergencies: If You Must Leave Your Building
Keeping the Emergency Program Alive
Special Supplement: Emergency Planning for Public Power Utilities
Opening Remarks
Emergency Planning in Public Power Utilities
Essential Planning and Mitigation Measures
Checklist of What Plans Should Do
A Model for Implementing a One-Stop Interface to Essential Information
Closing Remarks
EXHIBITS
Exhibits Summary
List of Resources Included
Emergency Program Quick-Start Guide
Emergency Plan Development Model
Emergency Program Administrator Summary of Duties
Primary Duties Summary
Specific Ongoing Duties
Other Related Duties
Sample After-Assessment Questions
Important Links to Emergency Program Information
Suggested Readings
Mutual Assistance (MA) Questions for Group Discussion
Forms and Diagrams Section
Form: Articles of Corporate Preparedness
Form: EP-1, Developing the Plan Scope
Form: EP-2, Developing the Risk Assessment
Form: EP-3, Prioritizing Core Services
Form: EP-4, Developing Recovery Strategies
Form: EP-5, Developing Procedures
Form: EP-6, Event Timeline
Form: EP-7, Emergency Duty Assignments
Form: EP-8, Emergency Planning "Info Base"
Spreadsheet Risk Assessment Tool
The Emergency Plan Development Model
Utility Emergency Program Resources Menu
Some Prudent Questions to Consider for Utility Organizations
Emergency Duty Description Form
Sample Emergency Plan Contents
Sample Newsletter
Sample Plan Audit Form
INDEX
Biography
Sam Mullen has more than 30 years experience in utility operations, planning, and management. He is the author of three books on contingency and emergency planning and technical communications, including Emergency Planning Guide for Utilities 1st and 2nd Editions, and Critical Communications: An Operations Guide for Business. After a long career in power system operations and system control, Mullen founded MPS in 1994, a practice working primarily with utilities. Sam consults on a full range of projects involving power system emergencies, EMS and SCADA operating procedures, information technology, business process design, computer applications and controls, communications, and regulatory compliance.