PTI Local Government Energy Assurance Guidelines - Metropolitan ...

complementary efforts can actually improve their emergency planning and response times (and likely their
post-emergency customer service rating), the company is likely to assist with local efforts to some degree.
The company needs to understand that local planners view EAP as a true partnership. Once this understanding
is established, information sharing can become more consistent. The company will want the local government
to be a satisfied, long-term customer, and the local government wants reliable, affordable energy, along with
useful information to assist in energy assurance and related emergency planning. It is a beneficial partnership
with obvious gains for all parties.
■ ■ Regulatory request: More formal in nature, a regulatory request will usually be presented to the State Public
Utility Commission or equivalent government agency. Regulatory requests typically take three to six months
from the time of the original request to the time that the response or information is required. A municipality’s
legal counsel can prepare this request relatively easily.
■ ■ Franchise agreement: Local governments often grant certain utility easements and/or rights-of-way so that
service may be delivered. In exchange, the local government receives just compensation. The provisions
of this agreement are generally codified in a franchise agreement between the two parties. Although these
agreements are usually limited in scope for the express purposes of delivering and assuring reliable energy
services, the scope of these franchise agreements has recently been expanded in many cases. A local
government may consider including access to, and release of, relevant energy information as a term of its
franchise agreement. It is important to remember the spirit of collaboration when crafting such language, and
it may be helpful to work closely with the utility in advance of writing the first (draft) franchise agreement.
Learning the information-related concerns of the utility is almost always useful, and it is beneficial for the
utility to see why the government wants or needs their information.
In the franchise agreement, it is helpful to include a statement outlining the right to discuss and negotiate what
information is needed by the local government, and confirmation of the utility’s willingness to provide such
information on a case-by-case basis. Generally, this process is very open-ended, and may result in very little
information being provided at first—but the process ensures that the right to request information from time to
time is contractually obligated. One risk to relying on franchise agreements for information disclosure is the
infrequency with which these agreements are renewed: a 20-year time horizon for a franchise agreement is
fairly typical, whereas a five-year agreement is rare.
Situational Awareness Needs: Communicating Information during a Disruption
As acknowledged in the 2010 Energy Sector-Specific Plan: An Annex to the National Infrastructure Protection Plan,
“During times of increased security posture or emergency situations, the best information sources are the trusted
relationships between government and industry. Such relationships ensure that necessary information is provided
when and where it is needed, and can be directly applied to protect and recover key energy infrastructure and
resources.” While sophisticated software programs and new hardware certainly help, human relationships and trust
built between people results in quicker, more reliable and useful communication during an emergency.
Crisis Communications: A Casebook Approach (1996) recommends that local governments undertake the following
steps in response to an emergency:
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Explain what happened and the nature of the energy emergency.
Explain who is involved in the energy emergency and their roles, to the best of the government’s knowledge.
Explain when and where the energy emergency is occurring or has occurred.
Local Government Energy Assurance Guidelines – Version 2.0 | 13