Utility Service Ratings: When do we rate them before or after an event.

Pepco Drill Tests Emergency Preparedness across Entire Region

                                              Tuesday, December 13, 2011

First Ever Exercise Involves District of Columbia, Montgomery & Prince George’s Counties in a Pre-Winter Drill to Focus on Utility’s Performance and Procedures

WASHINGTON – Pepco conducted a major pre-winter drill today to test the company’s emergency readiness, communication and coordination with designated Emergency Management Agency (EMA) representatives from the District of Columbia, Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties in Maryland.

Members of PHI’s Emergency Management Team (EMT) led this exercise that included for the first time all three jurisdictions within the Pepco Region.

“This exercise was designed to help ensure the processes work well between our team and EMA personnel,” said Caryn Bacon, Director, Emergency Preparedness for PHI. “Our goal was to enhance this coordinated response to ensure all personnel were trained and ready to respond as quickly and efficiently as possible during power outages caused by major storms this winter season.”

This drill tested the planning and implementation stages currently in place to respond to severe weather-related outages.

“Restoring power after a major storm is one of the most important things we do,” said Thomas Graham, President, Pepco Region. “By participating with our emergency management partners in various storm scenarios, we strengthen our collaborative processes to help ensure we are doing all we can to quickly restore power when it’s out.”

This drill was a continuation of the storm drill that took place in June and demonstrates Pepco’s overall commitment to enhancing emergency preparedness.

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http://www.pepco.com/welcome/news/releases/archives/2011/article.aspx?cid=1933

Pepco Prepares for Storms with Major Drill

                                                  Wednesday, June 22, 2011

500 Workers Perform Restoration Procedures; Government Officials and Reporters Observe

WASHINGTON – Pepco is conducting a major drill today to test the company’s readiness for a significant storm event. This is an annual exercise hosted by Pepco to ensure its employees are trained and prepared to respond as quickly and efficiently as possible during power outages caused by major storms. The exercise involves approximately 500 workers from across the Pepco Holdings, Inc. service area.

This functional exercise is intended to p rovide realistic scenarios for workers to practice implementation of the plans that are in place to respond to severe weather-related outages and other significant outage incidents; d emonstrate and rehearse changes that improve the restoration process; and ensure customer communications are enhanced.

“This exercise will demonstrate our storm restoration processes as well as how the Reliability Enhancement Plan is improving our infrastructure and ability to provide service during major weather events,” said Thomas Graham, President, Pepco Region.

For this year’s drill, Pepco has invited government officials and the media to the exercise for the first time. Legislators, regulators and journalists will have the opportunity to observe a simulated restoration process in Pepco’s Control Center and will witness the company’s restoration preparedness and response.

“Providing this rare look inside our Operations complex demonstrates our desire for transparency, and we hope it will provide context for Pepco’s response protocols and procedures,” Mr. Graham said. “Members of our executive and management team will be available to discuss how we handle major storm events and answer questions about our restoration process.”

http://www.pepco.com/welcome/news/releases/archives/2011/article.aspx?cid=1763

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Pepco, a subsidiary of Pepco Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: POM), delivers safe, reliable and affordable electric service to more than 778,000 customers in Maryland and the District of Columbia.

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.

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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

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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...."