Hey PEPCO....What happened to our money?

Pepco are or have you received any other federal funds for upgrading consumers systems that you'd still want to raise rates?

PHI & DOE Sign Agreement for $168.1 Million in Smart Grid Grants

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

DOE Makes It Official by Signing PHI Award

WASHINGTON – Pepco Holdings, Inc. ( POM:NYSE ) and the Department of Energy (DOE) have signed agreements for three American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grants formalizing $168.1 million for smart grid projects.

The formal start date for the projects is now April 12, 2010. Last October , the U.S. Department of Energy selected PHI to receive $168.1 million in federal stimulus funds to help build the smart grid in the District of Columbia, Maryland and New Jersey. $149.4 million will go to Pepco, with $104.8 million for smart grid projects in Maryland and $44.6 million for the District of Columbia. Atlantic City Electric will receive $18.7 for its smart grid projects.

“The $168.1 million will accelerate the delivery of customer benefits through building an integrated smart grid composed of advanced metering infrastructure, distribution automation and demand response technologies. We look forward to working with regulators to implement smart meters for our customers,” said Joseph M. Rigby, PHI Chairman, President and CEO.

The money will help offset the cost to customers for installing meters and modernizing the electric grid. The smart grid will create new green jobs, boost the economy and lay the technological groundwork for customers to better manage their energy use and reduce carbon emissions generated by fossil-fueled power plants.

Once installed, the smart grid will provide several key services to consumers including over-the-air meter reads that minimize the need for estimated bills, detailed information on energy use to enable better energy management, and proactive customer communications by e-mail or text messaging to notify customers about power outages and service restoration.

###

Pepco Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: POM) is one of the largest energy delivery companies in the Mid-Atlantic region, serving about 1.9 million customers in Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland and New Jersey. PHI subsidiaries Pepco, Delmarva Power and Atlantic City Electric provide regulated electricity service; Delmarva Power also provides natural gas service. PHI provides competitive wholesale generation services through Conectiv Energy and retail energy products and services through Pepco Energy Services.

http://www.pepco.com/welcome/news/releases/archives/2010/article.aspx?cid=1394

August 16, 2012. Regional Situational Awareness Workshop

Register for Regional Situational Awareness Workshop, August 16 (McLean, VA)

Submitted by Corey Watts on Fri, 2012-07-13 23:23 

• United States 
• Communication
 
• Other

The All Hazards Consortium, the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security & Preparedness, MITRE Corporation, and the DHS Science and Technology Office of First Responder Programs present:

REGIONAL "SITUATIONAL AWARENESS" WORKSHOP 

A "One Region" Approach Towards Public/Private Information Sharing

  

August 16, 2012 

McLean, Virginia

8:00 AM to 2:00 PM

  

Registration is open and complimentary only for qualified attendees which includes federal, state and local government employees and private sector owner operators.

Last week's severe thunderstorms (and derecho) in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area emphasized the need to maintain situational awareness during a disaster. 

Communicating and coordinating response efforts between the public and private sector organizations during disasters is lacking the needed information sharing and data integration in order to provide the appropriate information quickly to both public and private decision makers in a timely manner.

The All Hazards Consortium, in partnership with the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security & Preparedness, MITRE Corporation, and the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate's Office of First Responder Programs is co-hosting a multi-state workshop focused on situational awareness and information sharing platforms and standards to be used between public and private sectors during natural and man-made disasters.

The Regional Situational Awareness Workshop will focus on improving information sharing and data interoperability between the various public and private tools and platforms by focusing on the "standards" being used and gathering recommendations from local/state governments and private sector owner/operators to provide to the developers of tools (e.g. federal agencies, academia and private sector organizations) on the "suite of standards approach" that could provide a common framework and a path forward to support information sharing and data interoperability of all systems at the state and local levels.

Workshop Speakers/Panelists

  

The workshop will bring together leaders, operational professionals and stakeholders from several state/local government catastrophic planning efforts, along with private sector companies from specific sectors (power, food, telecommunications, transportation, etc..) and federal agencies for interactive discussions and recommendations.

Speakers include:

• Dr. Robert Griffin, Director of First Responder Programs, Science and Technology Directorate, Department of Homeland Security
• Joseph Picciano, Deputy Director, New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness
• Barbara Toohill, Vice President and Director, Homeland Security Systems Engineering and Development Institute (MITRE), DHS Federally Funded Research and Development Center
• Chris McIntosh, Interoperability Coordinator, Office of Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security, Commonwealth of Virginia
• William Robinson, Security Manager, Valero (PBF Energy)
• Captain Xenophon Gikas, Los Angeles Fire Department
• John L. Shaner, Emergency Preparedness Manager, PEPCO (PHI Holdings)
• Chief Aaron Kustermann, Illinios State Police
• Mel Blizzard, Security Manager, BG&E
• Dan Stoneking, Director, Private Sector Office of External Affairs, FEMA (tentative)
• And more!

Goals/Objectives

1) Develop shared intent, perspectives and a common framework for discussions and recommendations 

1. Raise knowledge and collaboration base levels in the Data Standards and Information Sharing domains among state, federal, local, and private sector stakeholders
2. Expand emergency preparedness and homeland security dialog around the topic of Situational Awareness and its tools and strategies

2) Develop recommendations on approaches and suite of standards to be used in future 

1. Provide researchers and tool developers with recommendations from state/local government and the private sector on common standards to be used for data sharing in order to move towards a more integrated information "interoperability & sharing" environment between state/local/federal government and eventually the private sector owner/operators of the critical infrastructure

3) Align Research & Development Efforts

1. Identify and align existing research efforts to minimize the duplicity of systems
2. Align funding to maximize the Department of Homeland Security "system of systems" approach through data standards and common frameworks
3. Integrate planning efforts into system design and development efforts to improve functionality and increase value to the emergency preparedness community.

4) Enhance public/private situational awareness partnerships

1. Enable and enhance the Department of Homeland Security's relationship with state, local, and private sector owner/operator emergency management and homeland security stakeholder communities:

• Present and demonstrate state-of-the-art situational awareness platforms and strategies
• Increase knowledge and understanding among DHS stakeholders of Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) relevant to the Homeland Security enterprise and how those FFRDC resources can be applied and accessed to address DHS stakeholder challenges
• Demonstrate how the standardization of information and data sharing in emergency management would greatly improve situational awareness, communications, interoperability, information sharing and all-hazards response.
• Identify a path where information sharing and data mobility can be achieved in an emergency situation regardless of location and communications medium and/or devices.

Schedule

8:00am - 9:00am   Registration / Coffee & Pastries

9:00am - noon       Welcome/Keynote/Panel Sessions

Noon - 12:45pm     Lunch on your Own

12:45pm - 2:00pm  Discussion / Adjourn

Schedule is subject to change

Miscellaneous 

• This event is closed to the media.
• All attendees will need to produce appropriate identification (i.e., driver's license or government-issued id). Name badges will be issued and checked on site at all times.
• Dress is business or business casual.
• No registrations will be performed on site for this event, but substitutions will be allowed.

Location  

The Workshop will be held at MITRE Corporation in Building 1 at 7515 Colshire Drive in McLean, Virginia 22102-7539. For a map and directions, visit

http://www.mitre.org/about/locations/va_mclean_mitre1.html

(CLICK TO REGISTER NOW)

We look forward to seeing you at our event.

 

Sincerely,

 

Laura Johnson

Manager, Conferences & Outreach

All Hazards Consortium

laura.johnson@ahcusa.org

Average:

0

Your rating: None

Groups: 

• Disaster Management

• Add new comment
 
• Printer-friendly version
 
• PDF version

Men of Honor: Honor our History & Heritage

Everyone Has a Story: 3 area African Americans earn Congressional Gold Medal

Posted: Saturday, August 4, 2012 6:44 pm

By MICHELLE BRUNETTI POST Staff Writer

Egbert Brady, Thomas Lane IV and Melvin Scott came from different states to Camp Montford Point in Jacksonville, N.C., during World War II. They were among the first African Americans to join the U.S. Marine Corps, but their training was separate from that of white recruits.

All three are now residents of South Jersey, and they recently traveled to Washington with about 370 other surviving Montford Point Marines to receive the Congressional Gold Medal — the nation’s highest civilian award — for their courage and perseverance.

“We were young men who had one thing in common. We all felt we could do almost anything, if given the chance,” said Lane, 87, of the Gouldtown section of Fairfield Township, who enlisted the day after he graduated from high school in Philadelphia in 1943.

They put up with substandard, segregated housing in all-black units led by white officers. And there was a lot of prejudice from white Marines.

Standing from left, Melvin Scott, 85, of Mays Landing; Thomas Lane IV, 87, of Fairfield Township; and in front Egbert Brady, 90, of Vineland, show the Congressional Gold Medals they received for being among the first African Americans to join the U.S. Marine Corps.

“We weren’t wanted,” said Scott, 85, of Mays Landing, who grew up in Washington and attended Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, the nation’s first high school for black students.

All had grown up with segregation. They wanted to be Marines because they considered it the toughest branch of the service.

“We had to prove we were capable of being there,” Scott said.

“It was kind of hard when I first went in,” said Brady, 90, of Vineland, a career Marine who fought in World War II and Korea, then became a C-130 transport pilot and went to Vietnam. “But I grew to like it. I stayed 29 years.”

Lane and Scott met at Montford Point. When Lane’s unit went overseas, Scott said to him, “See you later, buddy.”

And he did see him 13 years later, in Vineland. They had both gone to college, married and taken teaching jobs in South Jersey.

Both became school administrators. Scott was the supervisor of federal and compensatory programs for the Vineland School District for about 30 years. Lane retired as superintendent of Bridgeton public schools in 1993.

The Marines admitted their first black members in 1942, but units remained segregated until President Harry S. Truman issued an executive order in 1948 to stop the practice.

Y member’s 101 candles

The YMCA of Vineland held an informal 101st birthday party Friday for its oldest member, Ted Krause, whose been a member for 42 years.

Krause still swims about five days a week, a Y representative said.

Everyone Has a Story appears Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays.

Contact Michelle Brunetti Post:

609-272-7219

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/blogs/michelle_post/everyone-has-a-story-area-african-americans-earn-congressional-gold/article_d2f98b56-de85-11e1-a9c0-001a4bcf887a.html

Radio Interview. We Act Radio 1480AM, Washington, D.C.

BEMA Network Members & Non-Members (All):

Tune your car, home, set your PC's and smartphones for BEMA's Chief Executive Charles D. Sharp interview Wednesday, August 8, 2012 at 6pm on the We Act Radio (http://www.weactradio.com/archived/ )  station 1480AM  on the SPEAKeasy evening show for your commute home.

Charles

Charles D. Sharp

Chief Executive

Black Emergency Managers Association   

bEMA

"I Care...."

Ebola outbreak suspected among Uganda prisoners

http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/02/health/uganda-ebola-virus/index.html?hpt=wo_c2

From David McKenzie, CNN

updated 4:54 PM EDT, Thu August 2, 2012

Kagadi, Uganda (CNN) -- The hospital at the center of an Ebola outbreak in Uganda is now dealing with 30 suspected cases, including five from Kibaale prison, Dr. Dan Kyamanywa said Thursday.

Three patients at Kagadi hospital have been confirmed as having the virus, said Kyamanywa, a district health officer.

Doctors are now testing the suspected cases urgently so they can separate confirmed cases from those who do not have the disease, Doctors Without Borders said.

Suspected cases are still trickling into the hospital, Kyamanywa said.

At least 16 people have died in the current outbreak.

The five prisoners have been showing Ebola-like symptoms of vomiting, diarrhea and fever, the doctor said.

"We do expect the number of suspected cases to increase," he said. "It's important to break transmission and reduce the number of contacts that suspected cases have."

There is a fear that the outbreak will spread to the capital, but it is unlikely, he said.

Many patients fled Kagadi hospital when Ebola was confirmed, he said, and the hospital is struggling to respond to all the call-outs to suspected cases.

Could the Ebola outbreak spread to the U.S.?

"Right now there is no treatment for Ebola, so the most effective measure we can take is to contain the spread of the disease," said Olimpia de la Rosa, the Doctors Without Borders emergency coordinator for Uganda Ebola intervention.

"That is why we need to start working immediately. Other cases need to be rapidly identified because containment is what can stop it," said the expert from the aid group, which is also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres.

The Ugandan government has asked people in western Uganda to travel by public transport only if it is necessary.

The outbreak began in the Kibaale district in western Uganda.

The deaths have stoked heightened fear about the spread of the virus, a highly infectious, often fatal agent spread through direct contact with bodily fluids. Symptoms can include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, headache, a measles-like rash, red eyes and, at times, bleeding from body openings.

Market day was canceled Wednesday after Uganda's president warned people not to gather in large groups.

Health officials urged the public to report any suspected cases, to avoid contact with anyone infected and to wear gloves and masks while disinfecting bedding and clothing of infected people. Officials also advised avoiding public gatherings in the affected district.

Teams in Uganda are taking an aggressive approach, including trying to track down anyone who came into contact with patients infected with the virus and health workers have been gearing up for better protection of health workers and an influx of cases.

The workers include people from Uganda's ministry of health, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization.

The outbreak initially went undetected because patients did not show typical symptoms, Ugandan Health Minister Dr. Christine Ondoa told CNN on Sunday. Patients had fevers and were vomiting, but did not show other typical symptoms, such as hemorrhaging.

Diagnosis in an individual who has only recently been infected can be difficult since early symptoms, such as red eyes and skin rash, are seen more frequently in patients who have more common diseases, the CDC said.

Uganda's Ministry of Health declared the outbreak in Kibaale district Saturday after the Uganda Virus Research Institute identified the disease as the Sudan strain of Ebola hemorrhagic fever.

The Ebola virus was first detected in 1976 in the central African nation of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). The virus is named after a river in that country. There are five strains of Ebola viruses, all named after the areas where they were found: Zaire, Sudan, Cote d'Ivoire, Bundibugyo and Reston, according to the WHO.

Ugandan officials, international experts tackle Ebola outbreak