Department of Energy Improves Hurricane Response System
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has outlined a number of steps that it is taking to strengthen its hurricane response system in the United States.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has outlined a number of steps that it is taking to strengthen its hurricane response system in the United States.
Since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, DOE has made operational and administrative improvements, including coordination between federal, state and local leaders, deployment of trained staff and improvements to modeling tools.
“Bringing power back online is a critical step in recovering and rebuilding from a disaster and the Department of Energy stands ready to help coordinate fuel delivery to affected areas and remove barriers in energy recovery efforts,” says Alex de Alvarez, deputy director of the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability for Infrastructure Security and Energy Restoration.
To further prepare, DOE’s hurricane response system has:
- Conducted regional exercises to help further prepare state and local government staff in the case of emergencies.
- Hired seven new staff specifically to support the energy emergency function under the National Response Plan.
- Trained over 50 technical and emergency response staff that will be available to deploy to an affected region and embed in other federal responding agencies such as Department of Homeland Security (DHS); and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). DOE has also assigned coordinators to all FEMA regions.
- Instituted a “helpline” for the 2007 hurricane season to allow state/local governments and industry to communicate with DOE during emergencies.
- Enhanced DOE’s modeling, analytical, and visualization capabilities by working with national laboratories, and industry.
- Increased coordination with federal agencies such as DHS/FEMA, MMS, DOT, FERC, and EPA to further improve federal interagency coordination response for energy emergencies.
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