STATEMENTS OF POLICY

PENNSYLVANIA PUBLIC UTILITY COMMISSION

[ 52 PA. CODE CH. 69 ]

[ M-2013-2382943 ]

Utility Service Outage Response, Recovery and Public Notification

[43 Pa.B. 6518]
[Saturday, November 2, 2013]

 The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (Commission), on September 26, 2013, adopted a proposed policy statement which revises existing response, recovery and public notification guidelines with additional storm preparation and response best practices that were developed following hurricanes Irene and Sandy.

Public Meeting held
September 26, 2013

Commissioners Present: Robert F. Powelson, Chairperson; John F. Coleman, Jr., Vice Chairperson; Wayne E. Gardner; James H. Cawley; Pamela A. Witmer

Proposed Policy Statement Regarding Utility Service Outage Response, Recovery and Public Notification Guidelines; Doc. No. M-2013-2382943

Proposed Policy Statement

By the Commission:

Background and Procedural History

 On September 14 and 15, 2008, Hurricane Ike swept through Pennsylvania interrupting electric service to over 450,000 customers. Prompted by this occurrence, on September 25, 2008, the Commission issued a Secretarial Letter to all electric distribution companies (EDCs) operating in Pennsylvania seeking information regarding their service and public notice practices. On the same date, an investigation was initiated into EDCs' service outage responses and restoration practices with the same information requested. Responses were filed by the EDCs. As part of this investigation, the Commission also held two public input hearings in western Pennsylvania and solicited information from EDCs regarding their current and past storm preparation and response practices.

 In April 2009, the Commission's Bureau of Conservation, Economics and Energy Planning and Office of Communications submitted a report to the Commission entitled, Electric Distribution Company Service Outage Response and Restoration Practices Report (Outage Response and Restoration Report). This report was adopted by the Commission at Public Meeting of April 30, 2009, at Docket No. M-2008-2065532. On the same date, this Commission adopted the Joint Motion of former Vice Chairman Tyrone J. Christy and Commissioner Kim Pizzingrilli to initiate a rulemaking proceeding to revise our regulations on Service Outages at 52 Pa. Code Section 67.1, et seq., and reportable incidents at 52 Pa. Code Sections 57.11, 59.11 and 65.2. The Joint Motion also directed that a Policy Statement be issued.

 The Outage Response and Restoration Report summarized the findings of the staff's investigation and recommended the following future actions:

 • Utilities should apply the principles of the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and its Incident Command System when managing widespread service outages. Application of NIMS would include:

 1. Development of written crisis communication plans consistent with national NIMS standards.

 2. Establishment of a Joint Information System/Joint Information Center to coordinate responses when multiple utilities in the same region are affected by an incident.

 • Utility personnel should communicate with the news media and public in a consistent fashion. Common talking points should be distributed to all utility employees who may be in contact with the public and news media.

 • During incident management, utilities should establish a schedule for the regular release of information to the news media.

 • Utilities should strive to use the best available technology to facilitate the sharing of information, including automated dialing systems, electronic mail and text messaging.

 • Utilities should provide a greater level of detail in their written reports to the Commission for unscheduled service interruptions that meet the criteria under 52 Pa. Code § 67.1(b), including the level of damage to utility facilities, number of personnel utilized through mutual aid agreements, and other matters identified in the report.

 • The Commission should establish a more uniform approach to reportable accidents involving utility facilities and operations.

 Given the communication methods and reaction of consumers from the September 2008 electric outages and subsequent large-scale and extended duration outage events, including those in the late summer and fall of 2011, we subsequently issued a Final Policy Statement on December 15, 2011 for our EDCs and NGDCs. It was similar to the one adopted on November 9, 2006, for our jurisdictional water utilities. Additionally, we revised the policy statement for water to make it consistent with the electric and gas sections. For example, we revised the water section to encourage the use of social media and other emerging technology. We also added the section on the NIMS standards that water utilities should strive to follow.

 On September 23, 2011, the Commission issued a Final Rulemaking Order revising 52 Pa. Code §§ 7, 59, 65 and 67 regarding utilities' service outage response and restorations practices with the goal of having even more effective responses to future unscheduled service outages. In general, under sections 57.11, 59.11 and 65.2, we expanded our regulations to capture more reportable events, such as cyber security attacks, and established deadlines for reporting accidents. Under section 67.1, we expanded our general provisions regarding service outages such that rather than just an approximate number of customers involved in a single incident is reported, the total number of sustained outages during the event are reported. As utilities employ better technology to more accurately count their sustained outages, this information is reportable to the Commission and we should be made aware of it. Other changes to section 67.1 included reporting the number of not only utility workers, but also contract workers specifically assigned to the repair work and mutual aid workers.

 Hurricane Irene hit Pennsylvania in August of 2011. On October 12, 2011, the Commission held a Special Reliability Meeting, focusing the discussion on the Commission's role in storm response as well as the preparation and response of the six EDCs that were affected most by Irene.¹ On August 7, 2012, the Commission issued three reports. The first report summarized the preparation and response of the PUC and EDCs to Hurricane Irene. The second report detailed information relating to handling of high-call volumes during major storms and corrective actions currently underway or completed. This report also addressed the need to focus on the increase in severe weather events and whether infrastructure improvements are necessary. The third report summarized outage information submitted by the EDCs for the period from May through November 2011 on full or partial circuit outages greater than 24 hours; between 24 and 48 hours; greater than 48 hours to 72 hours; and greater than 72 hours. This report also considered circuits that were among the worst performing 5 percent of circuits identified in the PUC-filed Quarterly Reliability Reports for the first three quarters of 2011.²

 Hurricane Sandy swept through Pennsylvania in October of 2012. Following Hurricane Sandy, the Commission directed the EDCs to work together to share best practices learned from the response to Sandy and to develop best practices to address some of the issues identified during the response to Sandy. On January 10, 2013, the Commission held a Special Reliability Meeting which focused on the preparation and response of the EDCs for Sandy as well as a briefing on the EDC best practice group's progress.³ On March 20, 2013, the EDC Best Practices Team briefed the Commission Reliability staff on the group's progress at a meeting of the Energy Association of Pennsylvania's Electric Transmission and Distribution Committee. On May 7, 2013, the Commission and EDC Best Practices Team briefed the PA Senate Consumer Protection & Professional Licensure Committee on the lessons learned from Sandy and the Best Practice Team's progress. On September 13, 2013, the EDC Best Practices Team updated the Commission's Reliability and Emergency Response Staff on the group's progress.

 As discussed above, over the past three years, the Bureau of Technical Utility Services (TUS) has reviewed several significant service outages, including the Sandy Report prepared in May of 2013.⁴ Following this review, TUS recommended that the Commission consider revising the Utility Service Outage Public Notification Guidelines for Pennsylvania EDCs so that the efforts that were undertaken by the EDCs to improve their storm response performance following Hurricanes Irene and Sandy can be memorialized.

 While this Proposed Policy Statement focuses mainly on improving coordination, communications, event forecasting, and holding exercises in order to better respond to major storms, the Commission will continue to work with various utility working groups to identify further best practices in an effort to achieve continuous improvement. The Commission will continue to enhance its policies as these best practices are further developed and defined.

Establishment of Critical Infrastructure Interdependency Working Group

 In addition to revising this Policy Statement to account for the experience gained in the more recent significant service outages, the Commission recognizes the need to coordinate restoration of critical infrastructure facilities. Coordinating the response between electric, telephone, water, wastewater, and natural gas systems in areas where more than one of those systems may be affected during major outage events such as hurricanes, tropical storms, major flooding, ice storms, heavy snows, cybersecurity incidents and other similar occurrences is an important component to an effective response. Thus, the Commission has recommended the establishment of a Critical Infrastructure Interdependency Working Group. The Commission also recognizes that non-jurisdictional stakeholders such as municipal water and wastewater systems, mid-stream natural gas companies, wireless telecommunications carriers and cable companies provide vital services and would also benefit from coordination with regulated utilities. To provide a means for all parties to discuss interdependencies and share best practices, the Commission is establishing the Critical Infrastructure Interdependency Working Group (Working Group). We invite comment on the establishment of this Working Group from all interested persons.

 The Working Group will meet at least once per calendar year. The Commission will invite all jurisdictional EDCs, incumbent telephone, facilities-based competitive telecommunications, water, wastewater, and natural gas distribution utilities with 5,000 or more customers. The Commission will also invite certain non-jurisdictional stakeholders to participate, including non-jurisdictional utilities as well as county and state emergency response officials.

 One of the goals of the Working Group will be for parties to come to an understanding of their critical interdependencies and how to coordinate restoration of services where more than one party is affected in a geographic area. This would include identification of mission critical facilities and their interdependencies such as commercial power, natural gas service, telecommunications, and water/sewer service. Also, participants could discuss prioritization of restoration of those mission critical facilities based on their current and projected capabilities such as alternate power generation, water and gas storage, populations served, and other considerations. Many utilities already have relationships in place with critical interdependency partners and those utilities would be encouraged to share the best practices of those relationships with the group. Utilities are encouraged to work with their trade associations such as the Energy Association of PA, Pennsylvania Telephone Association, the Broadband Cable Association of Pennsylvania, the Electric Power Generation Association, CTIA-The Wireless Association, the National Association of Water Companies and the Pennsylvania Section of the American Water Works Association.

 We hereby invite comment on the establishment of the Working Group and the adoption of a Proposed Policy Statement regarding Service Outage Response Recovery and Public Notification Guidelines. This Proposed Policy Statement, coupled with the regulations at Chapters 57, 59, 65, and 67 of Title 52 of the Pennsylvania Code, represents a comprehensive strategy for addressing electric service outage restoration practices. We recommend all interested persons review this Order and submit comments to this Commission.

Proposed Policy Statement

General discussion

 We are seeking comment on whether we should revise the policy statement to apply to other industries including water, wastewater, gas, and telecommunications. At this time, we are simply revising Section 69.1702 (NGDC) and Section 69.1602 (Water) to change the name of the Emergency Preparedness Coordinator to Lead Emergency Preparedness Liaison Officer consistent with the proposed revision here in 52 Pa. Code § 69.1902 (EDC).

 Further, we invite comment on the cost/benefit analysis regarding what benefits versus what costs the EDCs, and potentially other industries, may incur with implementation of the policy statement. In particular, we invite comment regarding the associated costs in developing storm damage and outage prediction models as outlined in the proposed preparation and response measure at Section 69.1903(f).

§ 69.1902 Notification guidelines.

 We are proposing revising § 69.1902 to change the name of the Emergency Preparedness Coordinator to Lead Emergency Preparedness Liaison Officer (Lead EPLO). This is based upon an internal administrative decision. This was not a substantive change to the administrative duties of this position but it is a different title. The Commission is proposing changing the title to Lead EPLO to be consistent with other Pennsylvania state agencies that use this same title.

§ 69.1903 Preparation and response measures.

 Section 69.1903 is a proposed new section which sets forth the suggested measures for Pennsylvania EDCs that were developed after review of the utilities' storm response for Hurricanes Irene and Sandy. This will memorialize a number of the best practices that were identified in the review, as well as other initiatives that would be of benefit.

 Subsection 69.1903(a) states that EDCs should offer company liaisons to counties including County Emergency Operations Centers or 9-1-1 Centers, depending on the county's preference, in the EDCs' service territories during high impact and major outage events.

 Subsection 69.1903(b) states that EDCs should offer regional conference calls for state and local elected officials and local emergency managers for major service outage events. We defined major service outage events to include hurricanes, tropical storms, major flooding, ice storms, heavy snows, and other similar occurrences.

 Subsection 69.1903(c) states that EDCs should develop and hold a storm restoration exercise at least once each calendar year and should notify the counties in their service territories of the dates and times of such exercises at least 3 months in advance and invite the counties to participate in the exercise. Although, these storm restoration exercises may already be a part of the normal emergency response or business continuity exercise programs required of EDCs under 52 Pa. Code § 101.3(b), we are now proposing in this subsection that EDCs bring in other stakeholders to this process as participants.

 Subsection 69.1903(d) states that both large and small EDCs should provide outage information on their websites. However, dependent on the size of the EDC, as defined by 52 Pa. Code § 57.195(b), different requirements for the website are stated as well as different times for updating the information listed.

 Subsection 69.1903(e) states that after a major outage event, EDCs should coordinate after action review with each other as well as solicit input from each county and other utilities as to the companies' performance during the event and any suggested improvements or comments on successful initiatives.

 Subsection 69.1903(f) states that all EDCs should develop a storm damage and outage prediction model that provides a means for the EDC to estimate expected storm damage and the potential number of service outages given inputs such as weather data, service territory geography/topography, historical data on similar storms, customer density, and location of crew and service centers.

 Subsection 69.1903(g) states that EDCs should continue their work on improving the process of providing timely and accurate estimated times of restoration (ETR) during all service outages, but especially during major service outage events.

Conclusion

 The Commission welcomes comments on all aspects of this proposed policy statement and establishment of a Critical Infrastructure Interdependency Working Group. We anticipate that commenters will provide helpful suggestions concerning the utility service outage response recovery process and options discussed herein including applying this to other industries including water, wastewater, gas and telecommunications. Upon review and evaluation of the comments, we expect to issue a Final Order that will include a Statement of Policy concerning the Commission's expectations on these matters.

 To facilitate public comment on these matters, a 30-day comment period is established. No reply comments will be permitted. Therefore,

It Is Ordered That:

 1. The proposed amendments to 52 Pa. Code §§ 69.1602,69.1702 and 69.1902—69.1903, as set forth in Annex A, are issued for comment.

 2. The Secretary shall submit this Order and Annex A to the Governor's Budget Office for review of fiscal impact.

 3. The Secretary shall certify this Order and Annex A and deposit them with the Legislative Reference Bureau for publication in the Pennsylvania Bulletin.

 4. Interested parties shall have 30 days from the date of publication in the Pennsylvania Bulletin of the Proposed Policy Statement and Annex A to file an original copy of comments to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, Attention: Secretary Rosemary Chiavetta, P. O. Box 3265, Harrisburg, PA 17105-3265.

 5. An electronic copy of the comments should be electronically mailed to Patricia Wiedt, Assistant Counsel, at pwiedt@pa.gov, and these comments in turn will be placed on the Commission's website for public viewing at www.puc.pa.gov. Attachments may not exceed three megabytes.

 6. Comments should, where appropriate, address the issues identified in this Order and should include, where applicable, a numerical reference to the attached Annex A which the comment(s) address, proposed language for revision, and a clear explanation for the recommendation.

 7. A copy of this Order and Annex A be filed at Docket No. M-2013-2382943.

 8. A copy of this Order and Annex A be served upon all electric distribution companies operating in Pennsylvania, all jurisdictional water and wastewater companies, all natural gas distribution companies, all jurisdictional telephone utilities, the Office of Consumer Advocate, the Office of Small Business Advocate, the AFL-CIO Utility Caucus, the Pennsylvania Utility Contractors Association, the Energy Association of Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Telephone Association (PTA), the Director of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA), the County Commissioners Association, and the three Area Directors of PEMA.

 9. The contact persons for this are Patricia Wiedt, Law Bureau, (717) 787-5755, pwiedt@pa.gov, Daniel Sear-foorce, Bureau of Technical Utility Services, dsearfoorc@pa.gov, (717) 783-6159, and Jennifer Kocher, jekocher@pa.gov, (717) 783-6152.

ROSEMARY CHIAVETTA, 
Secretary

 Fiscal Note: 57-300. No fiscal impact; (8) recommends adoption.

Annex A

TITLE 52. PUBLIC UTILITIES

PART I. PUBLIC UTILITY COMMISSION

Subpart C. FIXED SERVICE UTILITIES

CHAPTER 69. GENERAL ORDERS, POLICY STATEMENTS AND GUIDELINES ON FIXED UTILITIES

UNSCHEDULED WATER SERVICE INTERRUPTIONS AND ASSOCIATED ACTIONS

§ 69.1602. Public notification guidelines.

 (a) Acceptable methods of public notification. In the event of an unscheduled water service interruption, the following acceptable methods of public notification should be considered and utilized as appropriate:

 (1) Mass media. Facsimile/electronic mail notification to local radio and television stations, cable systems, newspapers and other print and news media as soon as possible after the event occurs. These notifications must provide relevant information about the event, such as the affected locations, its potential impact including the possible duration of the outage, the possible adverse health effects and the population or subpopulation particularly at risk, and a description of actions affected ratepayers/occupants should take to ensure their safety, with updates as often as needed. Updates should be provided on a predictable, regular schedule for the duration of the event. The Commission's Office of Communications and Lead Emergency Preparedness [Coordinator] Liaison Officer should also receive these notifications.

*  *  *  *  *

UTILITY SERVICE OUTAGE PUBLIC NOTIFICATION GUIDELINES—NATURAL GAS DISTRIBUTION MARKET

§ 69.1702. Notification guidelines.

 (a) Acceptable methods of public notification. In the event of a service interruption, the following acceptable methods of public notification should be considered and utilized as appropriate:

 (1) Mass media. Facsimile/electronic mail notification to local radio and television stations, cable systems, newspapers and other print and news media as soon as possible after the event occurs. These notifications must provide relevant information about the event, such as the affected locations, its potential impact including the possible duration of the outage, and a description of actions affected ratepayers/occupants should take to ensure their safety, with updates as often as needed. Updates should be provided on a predictable, regular schedule for the duration of the event. The Commission's Office of Communications and Lead Emergency Preparedness [Coordinator] Liaison Officer should also receive these notifications.

*  *  *  *  *

UTILITY SERVICE OUTAGE RESPONSE RECOVERY AND PUBLIC NOTIFICATION GUIDELINES—
ELECTRIC DISTRIBUTION MARKET

§ 69.1902. Notification guidelines.

 (a)  Acceptable methods of public notification. In the event of a service interruption, the following acceptable methods of public notification should be considered and utilized as appropriate:

 (1) Mass media. Facsimile/electronic mail notification to local radio and television stations, cable systems, newspapers and other print and news media as soon as possible after the event occurs. These notifications must provide relevant information about the event, such as the affected locations, its potential impact including the possible duration of the outage, and a description of actions affected ratepayers/occupants should take to ensure their safety, with updates as often as needed. Updates should be provided on a predictable, regular schedule for the duration of the event. The Commission's Office of Communications and Lead Emergency Preparedness [Coordinator] Liaison Officer should also receive these notifications.

*  *  *  *  *

 (Editor's Note: The following section is new and printed in regular type to enhance readability.)

§ 69.1903. Preparation and response measures.

 (a) Electric distribution company liaisons to counties. An electric distribution company (EDC) should offer a company liaison to counties (County Emergency Operations Centers or 9-1-1 Centers, depending on the county's preference) in its service territory during high-impact and major service outage events.

 (1) An EDC should inform the Commission's Lead Emergency Preparedness Liaison Officer (EPLO) of the counties in which the company has placed liaisons.

 (2) The threshold for when a company liaison is offered should be determined in agreement with the counties.

 (3) A county may request a company liaison for events that do not meet the established threshold.

 (4) An EDC should respond to a county's request for a company liaison.

 (5) An EDC should inform the Commission's Lead EPLO when a company liaison request has been made.

 (6) In a county served by more than one EDC, the EDCs should coordinate their response to the county so that the county has representation from the desired EDCs.

 (7) An EDC should meet at least yearly with each county to review the liaison program and other emergency response issues.

 (b) EDC regional conference calls. An EDC should offer regional conference calls for State and local elected officials and local emergency managers for major service outage events.

 (1) Examples of major service outage events include:

 (i) Hurricanes.

 (ii) Tropical storms.

 (iii) Major flooding.

 (iv) Ice storms.

 (v) Heavy snows.

 (vi) Cybersecurity incidents.

 (2) Regions should be determined based on the geographic locations affected by the major service outage event.

 (3) An EDC should begin conference calls at least 2 days prior to an expected major service outage event and should offer to continue the conference calls until affected customers' service is restored.

 (4) An EDC should ensure participants on the conference call have the required call-in information prior to initiating the calls.

 (5) EDCs should work together to share best practices on how to structure and manage the regional conference calls, especially in those areas that are served by multiple EDCs.

 (6) An EDC should notify the Commission's Lead EPLO when initiating regional conference calls.

 (c) EDC storm exercises. An EDC should develop and hold a storm restoration exercise at least once each calendar year.

 (1) An EDC should notify the counties and other utilities in its service territory of the dates and times of storm restoration exercises at least 3 months in advance.

 (2) An EDC should invite counties in its service territory to participate in its storm restoration exercises.

 (3) An EDC is encouraged to coordinate the planning of its exercises with counties and the Commonwealth, especially in conjunction with the annual State-level Spring Weather Exercise event facilitated by the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency.

 (4) An EDC that has a large service territory should hold several smaller-scale exercises on a regional level.

 (5) An EDC should inform the Commission's Lead EPLO of the dates and times of its storm restoration exercises.

 (6) An EDC should review its exercise After Action Reports with the Commission, including corrective actions or best practice implementations planned as a result.

 (d) EDC outage web sites.

 (1) A large EDC, as defined in § 57.195(b) (relating to reporting requirements), should have an outage information section or portal on its web site. The outage information should be updated on a periodic basis of at least once per hour. The outage section or portal should provide one of the following:

 (i) A graphic outage map of the service territory with county boundaries clearly defined that shows current service outages for the entire service territory and current outages in each county using text, colors or some other means. The outage map should:

 (A) Allow users to click on a specific county and view the total number of customers out of service for the county.

 (B) Indicate the current number of customers out of service by municipality or borough.

 (C) Provide estimated times of restoration.

 (D) Include the number of customers served in each county and municipality or borough.

 (ii) A summary tab that allows users to view the total number of customers out of service for the municipality or borough in each county along with an option to view the total number of customers out of service for the municipality or borough in each county along with estimated times of restoration and the number of customers served in each county and municipality or borough.

 (2) A small EDC, as defined in § 57.195(c), should provide an outage section on its web site that provides:

 (i) Outage and estimated restoration information by county and municipality or borough for service outages that meet the reporting criteria as defined in § 67.1(b) (relating to general provisions).

 (ii) Outage and estimated restoration information, updated at least twice daily, and noting the next update time for each posting.

 (3) Outage information for large and small EDCs should be provided until the last customer's service affected by the outage event is restored.

 (e) EDC post-storm after action reviews. After major service outage events as defined in subsection (b)(1), an EDC should:

 (1) Coordinate after action reviews with other EDCs and solicit input from each county and other utilities as to the EDC's performance during the event and suggested improvements or comments on successful initiatives.

 (2) Report to the Commission on best practices identified and areas for improvement along with a timeline of implementation of those best practices and corrective actions for the areas of improvement. The report should be within 1 calendar year of the major service outage event's occurrence.

 (3) Submit a consolidated report to the Commission for major service outage events involving multiple EDCs.

 (f) EDC storm outage prediction models. An EDC should develop a storm damage and outage prediction model.

 (1) A storm outage prediction model should be a means for an EDC to estimate expected storm damage and the potential number of service outages given inputs such as weather data, service territory geography/topography, historical data on similar storms, customer density, and location of crews and service centers.

 (2) An EDC should provide the Commission with an overview of its model when it is completed. An EDC is encouraged to work together with other EDCs throughout the county and with academic institutions to develop its prediction model.

 (3) An EDC that already has a working model is encouraged to share its best practices with other EDCs while respect is given to proprietary elements in its model.

 (4) An EDC should provide an overview of its developed and implemented model to the Commission and county emergency managers in its service territory.

 (5) An EDC should provide the Commission's Lead EPLO and county emergency managers with its model's predictions prior to storms that are expected to cause service outages that meet the reporting criteria under § 67.1(b) as affecting its service territory.

 (g) EDC estimated time of restoration messaging. An EDC should continue its work on improving the process of providing timely and accurate estimated times of restoration during service outages, especially during major outage events as defined in subsection (b)(1).

¹  Link to documents from the meeting: http://www.puc.pa.gov/consumer_info/electricity/reliability.aspx.

²  The reports are available on the Commission's website at: http://www.puc.pa.gov/utility_industry/electricity.aspx.

³  The presentations from this meeting are available here: http://www.puc.pa.gov/consumer_info/electricity/reliability.aspx.

⁴  The Sandy Report can be found on the Commission's website at http://www.puc.state.pa.us/Electric/pdf/October_2012_Sandy_Report-public.pdf.

[Pa.B. Doc. No. 13-2046. Filed for public inspection November 1, 2013, 9:00 a.m.]

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