New York Codes, Rules and Regulations › Title 16 - DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SERVICE › Chapter II - ELECTRIC UTILITIES › Subchapter A - Service › Part 105 - Electric Utility Emergency Plans › Section 105.4 - Content of electric emergency plans

Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 28, July 10, 2024
(a) Each electric corporation's electric
				  emergency plan shall be compiled in a loose-leaf manual to facilitate updating.
				  The manual shall provide a current, detailed description of each corporation's
				  service restoration plan and, to the extent practicable, shall contain the
				  information set forth in subdivision (b) of this section.
(b) Each electric corporation's emergency
				  plan shall include the following information:
(1) Table of contents.
(2) Introduction. A statement of the purpose,
				  policies and objectives of the plan.
(3) Emergency classifications. Specify the
				  criteria or guidelines used for determining the severity of electric
				  emergencies and their classification. The guidelines should include, but need
				  not be limited to, the geographical scope of the emergency, the estimated time
				  required to restore general service, the type of expected damage to the
				  electric system, i.e., from a storm or other storm-like emergency, and an
				  indication of whether company personnel alone or company and supplementary,
				  non-company personnel will be needed to repair system damage.
(4) Emergency response training program.
				  State the corporation's program to provide emergency response training for
				  those personnel assigned service restoration responsibilities that are
				  different from their normal duties. Identify person(s) responsible for managing
				  and evaluating the effectiveness of the program. Include procedures for
				  conducting a minimum of one annual storm drill simulating a response to either
				  a storm, or other storm-like electric emergency that would be classified at the
				  highest or next highest level of severity. State the extent to which any
				  personnel outside the company may be involved in a storm drill. Include as
				  well, provisions for critiquing the drill procedures and for giving staff a
				  minimum of two weeks' advance notice of a scheduled drill.
(5) Advance planning and preparation. Specify
				  the on-going actions that the corporation expects to take throughout each year
				  to plan and prepare for an electrical emergency. State the corporation's
				  procedures to update at least semiannually its lists of contact persons, with
				  titles, addresses, phone numbers and other pertinent data for the following:
(i) all utility personnel assigned service
				  restoration responsibilities;
(ii)
				  mutual aid companies and contractors;
(iii) all life support and other special
				  needs customers;
(iv) human
				  services agencies;
(v) print and
				  broadcast media;
(vi)
				  operators/managers of motels, restaurants and dormitories, etc.;
(vii) state, county and local elected
				  officials, law enforcement officials, and emergency management and response
				  personnel;
(ix) medical facilities;
				  and
(x) vendors.
At least annually, the corporation shall verify that all of
					 the preceding data are current. At least semiannually, the corporation shall
					 issue updated lists of known changes to its employees that have plan
					 implementation responsibilities. The procedures should include the
					 corporation's plans to stockpile emergency restoration tools and supplies in
					 loose or kit form. State also, provisions for the preparation and distribution
					 of literature or other forms of communication with information on customer
					 storm preparations. Such information should address storm survival without
					 electric power and safety precautions regarding electrical hazards such as
					 downed wires and the use of portable generators.
(6) Emergency anticipation. Identify the
				  preparatory measures corporate management would implement in anticipation of a
				  potential system emergency expected to affect the service territory within
				  hours or days. Identify the criteria under which key personnel with service
				  restoration responsibilities would either be notified of an impending emergency
				  or deployed to assigned areas, and any special precautions that would be
				  taken.
(7) Service restoration
				  procedures. Provide the corporation's procedures for mobilizing its personnel,
				  materials and equipment in order to survey system damage and implement measures
				  to ensure timely, efficient and safe restoration of service to customers in
				  areas damaged by a storm or other storm-like electric emergency. The procedures
				  need to identify restoration priorities to ensure that restoration time is
				  minimized, while ensuring critical customers' needs are met. Include a listing
				  of the priorities for service restoration among customer groups in these
				  procedures. Identify criteria for determining when centralized versus
				  decentralized control is appropriate. For those severe emergencies when field
				  damage assessments are needed, describe the methods for making, within 24
				  hours, broadscale preliminary assessments of the nature and extent of system
				  damage based on rapid surveys of damaged areas and other data sources, and for
				  making, within 48 hours, more detailed estimates of system damage based on
				  systematic field surveys. Describe how field reports of system damage will be
				  integrated with damage reports or indicators from other sources, such as
				  customer call-ins, in order to make a reasonably accurate assessment of system
				  damage and reliable projections of the personnel, equipment, materials and time
				  that will be needed to rapidly and safely achieve service restoration goals in
				  all damaged areas. Provide the procedures for deploying company and mutual aid
				  crews to work assignment areas, monitoring crew activity, reassigning crews as
				  necessary, and releasing crews, under both centralized and decentralized
				  command modes. Describe the methods and means that will be used to communicate
				  with damage survey crews and service restoration crews. Identify the procedures
				  for coordinating company restoration procedures with those of other utilities'
				  restoration efforts and with state and local emergency management and public
				  works agency efforts.
(8) Personnel
				  responsibilities. Provide a narrative and chart of the organization and
				  operational assignments of personnel to be mobilized for each emergency
				  classification identified. State the areas of management and supervisory
				  responsibility and functions to be performed at each emergency classification
				  level. Include the procedures for contacting and managing all personnel
				  assigned duties under the emergency restoration plan at both the corporate and
				  operating division level.
(9)
				  Customer contacts. Provide the corporation's procedures and facilities for
				  handling the extraordinary volume of customer calls that are normally placed
				  during emergency events. Include a description of the type of messages that may
				  be given to call-in customers regarding projections for service restoration or
				  other pertinent information. State the overall corporate goals for answering
				  customer calls during electric emergencies including, but not limited to, plans
				  for staffing levels, number of positions activated, use of pre-recorded
				  messages, means of providing updated information to customer service
				  representatives, and the means of monitoring calls received and answered at the
				  utility's office and, to the extent possible, at telephone company switching
				  offices serving the utility's office. State the procedures for contacting
				  within 24 hours, and policies for responding to the needs of, life support
				  customers (those who require electrically operated machinery to sustain basic
				  life functions) during an electrical emergency. State the procedures for
				  contacting other special needs customers such as the elderly, the
				  vision-impaired, the hearing and speech-impaired, the mobility-impaired and
				  human service agencies representing these customers, along with policies for
				  handling inquiries and requests for assistance from them. Describe the
				  corporation's method for estimating dry ice needs during an emergency period
				  projected to last more than 48 hours and arrangements for obtaining and
				  distributing dry ice to designated customer groups. State also the means of
				  making out-of-service customers aware of the availability and the location,
				  dates, hours and amounts of dry ice to be distributed.
(10) Communications. Provide the
				  corporation's procedures and facilities for establishing and maintaining
				  external communications exchanges regarding damage and restoration progress
				  with customers in general, human service agencies, the media, the Department of
				  Public Service, the State Emergency Management Office and other state agencies,
				  county and local governments, emergency response services, and law enforcement
				  agencies, etc. Include the identification of any dedicated phone lines, the
				  designation of any special company representative to act as liaison with
				  government entities, and any special provisions that may be required for
				  dealing with critical facilities. State the corporation's planned frequency of
				  communication updates to the media.
(11) Outside aid. State corporate policy and
				  criteria governing conditions under which requests for service restoration aid
				  from other utilities, contractors, government agencies or others would be made
				  and the procedures to be followed in obtaining outside aid.
(12) Support services. Describe the actions
				  that will be taken, and who will be responsible for implementing them to
				  sustain and support restoration crew activities. These shall include vehicle
				  management; foreign crew accommodations, e.g., housing, food and
				  transportation; and distribution of warehouse supplies, e.g., materials, tools,
				  parts and equipment needed in the restoration process.