Energy emergency districts - concepts and applications.

Final report

Includes an 11 page bibliography, 25 figs, 15 tables and 11 appendices

This report describes the development of a number of models of the EED concept and also explores potential applications of the concept for enhancing emergency management procedures. Part I provides some of this background material, which describes the problems that energy emergency public organizations who share responsibility for energy resource emergency preparedness. Part II describes the mission, goals, scope and methods of the california energy and emergency preparedness project. Funded by FEMA to explore an innovative concept, that of Energy Emergency Districts, by use of an innovative process, that of collaborative problem solving, the project convened over 100 selected individuals at a two-day conference to try to reach consensus on the design and advisability of forming EEDS. The results and the implications drawn from the proceedings are also given in part II. Part III stems from the outcomes and the lessons learned at the conference, from the discussion in part I of existing organizations, and from interviews with energy providers and emergency mangers to suggest variations on the EED concept, and to outline programmatic approaches to energy resource emergency preparedness. The outline proposes developing the SERICEP Program (State Energy Resources Inventory for Coordinated Emergency Planning) in which each state would be considered a unit of analysis for purposes of conducting energy resource inventories. SERICEP would be a coooperative private/public venture, and use information technology, multi-entity coordination concepts, and cartographic technology for conducting the resource assessments. The outline further suggests the development of National Emergency Energy Inventory Districts (NEEIDS), to be activated for national-level emergencies only. NEEIDS would use existing National Electric Reliability Council (NERC) regional boundaries as units of analysis for compiling resource inventory data. Costs and benefits of data collections would be balanced, with an emphasis on building on existing reporting systems. Part IV, titled opportunities for further research, suggests some research areas and possible strategies for more thoroughly developing the EED concept, as well as for implementing it. These suggestions include: modification of FEMA's Integrated Emergency Management System (IEMS) process to include specific energy resource assessments; development of prototype approaches for conducting inventories using the Southern California earthquake preparedness project five-county planning area as a unit of analysis; conducting research on grid-independent applications of alternative energy technologies for use as stand-by emergency capability; survey of all states' emergency services operaions to determine the nature and extent of states' organizational relationship with energy providers .550.