Emergency Restoration Plan (ERP) Components

Note: Each electric utility is different. The differences may include: System Configuration Designs and Construction Standards Construction and Line Materials Operating procedures and practices Work methods Labor Agreements State Laws and Regulatory Requirements Therefore, the emergency response or restoration plans of utilities will differ. The following points may be considered as a guide on a macro level in developing response plans. All company employees may be assigned emergency restoration duties. Employees who are assigned to perform duties outside of their every day function shall be trained in their ERP duties and periodically participate in ERP exercises or drills. 1. Goal 1.1. Each hour of work will restore the maximum number of customers to service. 1.2. Outages and repair orders with the highest number of customers out of service will be addressed first (excluding outages involving critical customers which may be given a higher priority see below). The company s outage management system should accommodate this concept. 1.3. Out-of-service critical customers (hospitals, water treatment plants, locations to be used as temporary emergency shelters, etc.) may be given a higher priority 1.4. Hazards to the public such as wire down reports shall be given the highest dispatch priority. Although it may reasonably be assumed that certain outages involve a downed wire and may also be the highest priority. If practical, a separate wire down survey organization shall be employed to survey reported downed wires. Wire guards shall be used to stand by and keep the public away from previously identified downed energized wires. 1.5. Repair crews should only be assigned one repair work order at a time (except in unusual circumstances where communication may be an issue). This precludes the possibility of one crew holding a future repair job while another crew sits idle with no immediate assignment or one crew holding a high priority repair job to be worked in the future while another crew is assigned to a lower priority order. 2. Dispatch Philosophy 2.1. Restoration of the transmission system shall take priority over restoration of the distribution system (however, depending on transmission system contingencies, repairs to damaged line sections may be delayed). 2.2. Troubleshooters/servicemen These single person crews shall be assigned to cut, clear and restore. Downed wires shall be cut clear so that service can be restored to other customers. Repair work shall be assigned to line crews. 2.3. Servicemen shall be assigned to all three shifts 2.4. Repair crews should work daylight hours and no more than 16 hour shifts. 1

2.5. The standard repair crew should be two linemen using the following equipment: A single (one-man) basket bucket truck - or A single (one-man) basket jib boom bucket truck (installing transformers) - or A single (one-man) basket bucket truck and a line (pole setting) truck Typically, two linemen with a single bucket truck can complete the vast majority of storm repairs. Two crews may be teamed up to handle larger jobs (installing long sections of wire, setting large poles, etc,). Note: Company work methods may dictate larger crew sizes. 2.6. Repair crews should work as part of a team. The team should consist of : Field Supervisor (with vehicle) 6-8 two-man line crews 1-2 dispatchers 6-8 bucket trucks (2 of which are jib booms) 2-3 line trucks Teams may be relocated intact to other (not their home area) areas of the system. Dispatchers may or may not have to relocate with their teams depending on IT and communications capabilities. Can dispatchers access pending repairs orders from any computer? Are repair orders dispatched to crews by voice radio or mobile data terminal? Field supervisors should endeavor to pre-check pending repair orders (excluding routine orders such as downed service wires, etc.) before they are assigned to crews. 2.7. If the restoration process extends beyond 4-5 days, consideration should be given to limiting repair crew work to 12-hour daylight shifts (fatigue becomes a factor and productivity drops if longer shifts are employed). 2.8. Senior management should try and assure that resources, particularly repair crews, are allocated system-wide on a repair work priority basis. For example, it is inefficient to have line crews in one area of the service territory repairing single customer outages where in another area of the system multiple customer outages have yet to be dispatched. Travel times and workload, however, must be considered when making these decisions. 3. Two Types of Emergencies 3.1. Predictable 3.1.1. Hurricane, tropical storm, high winds (northeaster, etc.) 3.1.2. Flood 3.1.3. Prolonged heat wave 3.1.4. These emergencies permit pre event or storm anticipation activities. Discuss later. 3.2. Unpredictable/Sudden 3.2.1. Ice storm 3.2.2. Tornado 3.2.3. Wild fire 3.2.4. Earthquake 2

4. Resources 4.1. Human Emergency Restoration Plan (ERP) Components 4.1.1. Fully qualified lineman (trouble shooters, servicemen, lineman, etc.) 4.1.1.1. Company 4.1.1.2. Contractor 4.1.1.3. Mutual aid 4.1.2. Field supervisors 4.1.3. Dispatchers 4.1.4. Call handlers 4.1.5. Outage analysis personnel 4.1.6. Line patrol personnel 4.1.7. Wire guards 4.1.8. Make up crew personnel (low voltage crews) 4.1.8.1. Cable splicers and underground electric construction and maintenance employees 4.1.8.2. Substation electricians and mechanics 4.1.8.3. Meter technicians 4.1.8.4. Relay technicians 4.1.8.5. General shops employees 4.1.8.6. Power plant maintenance personnel 4.1.8.7. Gas department employees 4.1.9. Line clearing personnel 4.1.9.1. Company 4.1.9.2. Contractor 4.1.9.3. Mutual aid 4.1.10. Support personnel (transportation, stores, IT, etc.) 4.2. Facilities (Dispatch centers, operations centers, etc.) 4.3. IT (Computing and Communication) 5. Overall Planning 5.1. Depending on the level of the event (impact on the system). Procedures need to be in place to specify: 5.1.1. Where will restoration be managed from? The restoration effort may become too large to be centrally managed. 5.1.1.1. Normal operations center 5.1.1.2. Remote locations (,local operations centers, substations etc) 3

5.1.2. At what level are emergency response organization personnel directed to participate in the restoration effort. 6. Emergency Plan Components 5.1.2.1. Normal operations servicemen/troubleshooters dispatched by regular distribution system operations personnel 5.1.2.2. Normal Operations linemen who are qualified troubleshooters are assigned to distribution system operations dispatched by regular distribution system operations personnel 5.1.2.3. Normal Operations line crews are assigned to distribution system operations dispatched by regular distribution system operations personnel 5.1.2.4. Small Storm Operations line crews dispatched by line department personnel 5.1.2.5. Large Storm Operations 2-man emergency service crews (trained employees from other groups such as gas and meter depts.) dispatched by their supervision 5.1.2.6. Large Storm Operations Assistance from other company divisions 5.1.2.7. Large Storm Operations Mutual aid 5.1.2.8. Large Storm Operations - Contractors 6.1. Pre-event readiness measures (when it is known that a storm is approaching) 6.2. Call handling 6.3. Outage analysis outage management repair completion reporting 6.4. Downed wire survey 6.5. Damage assessment 6.6. Dispatching 6.7. Facilities repair service restoration 6.8. Line Material resources Materials management 6.9. Telco/CATV coordination 6.10. Foreign Crew (contractor line, contractor tree and mutual aid) organization 6.11. Public Works Coordination 6.12. Customer Outreach 6.13. Restoration status information distribution to the public and government officials 6.14. Support services 6.15. Post emergency activities 4

7. Emergency Plan Components Details 7.1. Pre-event Readiness Measures 7.1.1. System Emergency Coordinator meets with his emergency staff to plan the restoration effort. Review: 7.1.1.1. Weather forecast 7.1.1.2. Expected possible impact on the system 7.1.1.3. Company manpower status 7.1.1.4. Company transportation resources (vehicles, equipment, fuel) 7.1.1.5. Materials and supplies status (including emergency kits for foreign crews) 7.1.1.6. IT resources status 7.1.1.7. Corporate communications storm and public safety advisories 7.1.1.8. Liaison with public officials 7.1.2. Employee notification (be available and be prepared to report for your ERP assignment) 7.1.3. Consider pre-staffing work locations (dispatch centers, call centers, etc.) 7.1.4. Logistics 7.1.4.1. Fuel and stock repair vehicles and equipment 7.1.4.2. Ready storerooms 7.1.4.3. Secure power stations 7.1.4.4. Ready ERP (expanded) call centers 7.1.4.5. Ready ERP dispatch centers 7.2. Emergency Call Handling 7.2.1. Resources 7.2.1.1. Personnel 7.2.1.1.1. Regular call center staff 7.2.1.1.2. Employee emergency staff 7.2.1.1.3. Mutual aid 7.2.1.1.4. Contracted call handling 7.2.1.1.5. IT support personnel 7.2.1.2. IT 7.2.1.2.1. Communication (landlines, cell phones, radios, etc.) 7.2.1.2.2. Sufficient and back up lines, switches, etc. 7.2.1.2.3. Contracted call handling 7.2.1.2.4. Computer 7.2.1.2.5. Regular and backup computer servers necessary to handle expected traffic 7.2.1.2.6. IVR 7.2.1.2.7. Spare IT equipment (PCs, monitors, cell phones, etc) 7.2.1.2.8. Web based outage reporting and restoration estimates. 7.2.1.3. Work schedules 5

7.3. Outage Analysis/Outage Management 7.3.1. Resources 7.3.1.1. Personnel 7.3.1.1.1. Regular staff 7.3.1.1.2. Emergency Staff 7.3.1.2. Work schedules 7.3.1.3. IT 7.4. Downed Wire Survey 7.4.1. Personnel 7.4.1.1. Consider a separate organization for this function so that downed wire surveys are assigned the highest priority. 7.4.1.2. Emergency staffing 7.4.1.2.1. Supervisors 7.4.1.2.2. Dispatchers 7.4.1.2.3. Surveyors engineers, estimators, planners, etc. 7.4.1.2.4. Drivers meter readers, gas personnel, administration personnel, etc. 7.4.2. Equipment 7.4.2.1. Vehicles 7.4.2.2. Radios 7.4.2.3. Cell phones 7.4.2.4. Traffic cones, etc. 7.4.2.5. Maps, GPS, etc. 7.4.3. Procedures 7.4.3.1. Dispatch practices (number of tickets assigned at one time etc.) 7.5. Damage Assessment 7.5.1. Components 7.5.1.1. In a major event, a rapid assessment/estimate of system damage must be completed to determine the overall extent of damage and the restoration resources required (is mutual aid required?). The number of distribution circuit lockouts is a key indicator of the overall extent of damage. 7.5.1.2. Analytical outage management system 7.5.1.3. Triage assessment for events with widespread damage 7.5.1.4. Reports by trouble shooters and line crews and other field personnel 7.5.1.5. Reports from Downed Wire surveys 7.5.1.6. Line Patrols 7.5.1.7. In a major outage event (system-wide or locally) consider employing rapid surveys of the distribution system backbone to determine the extent of damage 6

7.6. Planning 7.6.1. Estimated restoration times 7.6.2. Resource requirements 7.6.2.1. Crews 7.6.2.2. Materials (broken poles, wire, transformers) 7.7. Dispatching 7.7.1. Non-Personnel Resources 7.7.1.1. IT 7.7.1.2. Telecom 7.7.1.3. Radio 7.7.1.4. Foreign crew communications 7.7.2. Personnel 7.7.2.1. System operations 7.7.2.2. Line Department 7.7.2.3. Tree Crew dispatch 7.7.2.4. Other departments 7.7.3. Policies 7.7.3.1. Dispatch priorities 7.7.3.2. Clearly defined 7.7.3.3. Outage management system established priorities. 7.8. Facilities Repair Service Restoration 7.8.1. Personnel (Company - Local) 7.8.1.1. Trouble shooters 7.8.1.2. Line crews 7.8.1.3. 2 man make up crews 7.8.1.4. Tree Crews 7.8.1.5. Local crews 7.8.1.6. Contractor crews 7.8.2. Foreign Crews 7.8.2.1. Mutual aid crews 7.8.2.2. Contractor crews 7.8.2.3. Crew guides (bird dogs) 7.8.3. Traffic Control Flagmen 7.8.3.1. Contractor 7.8.3.2. Other company departments 7.8.4. Policies and Practices 7.8.4.1. Work schedules 7.8.4.2. Foreign crew work practices safety, work methods, materials and construction standards 7

7.9. Line Material Resources Materials Management 7.9.1. Resources 7.9.1.1. Personnel 7.9.1.1.1. Regular staff 7.9.1.1.2. Emergency staff (gas department, etc.) 7.9.1.2. Material 7.9.1.2.1. Regular stock 7.9.1.2.2. Emergency stock 7.9.1.2.3. Vendor support 7.9.1.2.4. Foreign crew tool kits 7.9.1.2.5. Field material staging areas 7.9.1.2.6. Field material delivery 7.9.1.2.7. Coordination with TELCO on poles 7.9.1.2.8. Other 7.10. Telco/CATV Coordination 7.10.1. Joint use pole setting ( it is sometimes favorable to have Telco concentrate on setting replacement poles, regardless of ownership) 7.10.2. Critical customer coordination 7.11. Foreign Crew Organization 7.11.1. Receive foreign crews 7.11.2. Brief foreign crews on the system (work hours, construction standards, safety issues, switching procedures, meals, housing fueling, time reporting, etc.) 7.11.3. Distribute tool/material kits 7.11.4. Assign birddogs 7.11.5. Assign to company division, operations center, substation, etc. 7.11.6. Arrange for room and board. 7.11.7. Out processing 7.12. Customer Outreach 7.12.1. Life support customers 7.12.2. Provide information on emergency shelters 7.12.3. Dry ice, bottled water or other services 7.13. Public Works Coordination 7.13.1. Coordination on clearing critical roadways. Municipality needs roads clear for emergency vehicles (downed poles and wires are a potential hazard). Utility needs roads cleared for access to work locations 8

7.14. Restoration Status Information Distribution to the Public and Government Officials 7.14.1. Media government relations center. 7.14.2. Media relations 7.14.3. Governmental liaison 7.15. Support Services 7.15.1. Transportation 7.15.1.1. Vehicle fueling, maintenance and repair adequate fuel supplies 7.15.2. Facilities 7.15.2.1. Cafeteria services 7.15.2.2. Custodial services 7.15.3. Treasury 7.15.3.1. Petty cash (or alternative) for crew guides 7.15.4. Employee family assistance 8. Post Emergency Activities 8.1. Post event review 8.2. Material replenishment 8.3. System patrol/inspection For more information, please contact Lucille Jackowski by e-mail at lucillejackowski@aegislimited.com or at 201.508.2736. 9