§ 69.1903. Preparation and response measures.
(a) EDC 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 that are significantly impacted, meaning those with at least 10% of customers in the county experiencing an outage for over 48 hours, during high-impact and major service outage events such as those listed in subsection (b)(1).
(1) An EDC should inform the Commission’s Lead Emergency Preparedness Liaison Officer (EPLO) of the counties in which the company has placed liaisons when this information is available.
(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 subject to operational constraints.
(4) An EDC should make a best effort to respond to a county’s request for a company liaison under paragraph (3), subject to operational and safety considerations.
(5) 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.
(6) 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 prior to an expected major service outage event and should offer to continue the conference calls daily as warranted by the needs of the parties on the calls.
(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 weeks in advance, if possible.
(2) An EDC should invite counties in its service territory to participate in its storm restoration exercises.
(3) An EDC that has a large service territory may hold several smaller-scale exercises on a regional level.
(4) An EDC should inform the Commission’s Lead EPLO of the dates and times of its storm restoration exercises.
(5) 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) Large EDCs. 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 as technology permits:
(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 when available.
(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, when available, and the number of customers served in each county and municipality or borough.
(2) Small EDCs. 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) Duration. 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 major service outage event 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 through the EDC Best Practices Working Group and solicit input from each significantly impacted county and other utilities as to the EDC’s performance during the event and suggested improvements or comments on successful initiatives.
(2) The EDC Best Practices Working Group should 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 best practices report should be reported to the Commission within 1 calendar year of the major service outage event’s occurrence.
(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 other relevant factors.
(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 with its model’s predictions prior to expected major service outage events as defined in subsection (b)(1).
(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 service outage events as defined in subsection (b)(1).
Source The provisions of this § 69.1903 adopted April 18, 2014, effective April 19, 2014, 44 Pa.B. 2405.
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