N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs. tit. 16 § 105.4

Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 45, November 2, 2024

Section 105.4 - Content of electric emergency plans

(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.

(c) Within 60 days following completion of service restoration in an emergency where the restoration period exceeds three days, each electric corporation shall submit to the Secretary of the Public Service Commission a review of all aspects of its preparation and system restoration performance.

(d) Each electric corporation may submit such additional information and plans as it believes necessary or desirable to fulfill the purposes of this Part.

(e)

(1) Each electric corporation may delete the names and phone numbers of its employees and outside contact persons from the copies of plans filed with the commission and available for public inspection at its corporate headquarters. Such deleted information shall be subject to inspection by the commission or Department of Public Service employees.

(2) Any electric corporation may request that the commission designate as confidential any information required to be submitted in emergency plans. Confidential information may include, for example, internal security matters. Such requests shall identify the specific information requested to be treated as confidential and shall explain why confidentiality is sought. Unless the commission directs otherwise, such information shall not be included in the plans available for public inspection.

N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs. Tit. 16 § 105.4