2nd Edition

Emergency Planning Guide for Utilities

By Samuel Mullen Copyright 2013
    232 Pages 31 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    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.