Public power utilities help Portland General Electric restore power

February 22, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
February 22, 2021

Public power utilities recently sent crews to help Oregon investor-owned Portland General Electric (PGE) with power restoration efforts after PGE was hit hard by a winter storm this month.

Seattle City Light crews left Seattle at 6 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 15 to assist PGE.

Julie Moore, Seattle City Light’s Director of Communications, noted that the utility sent two crews (10 people total). Tentatively, they will return on Friday, Feb. 26, but it depends on how the restoration goes, she noted.

The Seattle City Light crews were deployed under a mutual aid agreement with PGE.

Meanwhile, Washington State’s Snohomish County PUD reported that it had four service crews working in western Oregon to assist PGE with power restoration.

Snohomish noted that more than 500,000 customers were without power at the height of the storm, “but incredible progress has been made.”

PGE reported that it has also received assistance from Avista Utilities, Central Lincoln PUD, Puget Sound Energy and Eugene Water and Electric Board.

NTUA details accomplishments on CARES Act projects, prepares for next Light Up Navajo effort

February 4, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
February 4, 2021

The Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA) recently highlighted a number of significant accomplishments tied to its efforts over much of 2020 to extend, build, connect, and provide utility services to hundreds of families funded through Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

In mid-August, the Navajo Nation (NN) — the recipient of CARES Act funding — announced the award of $147,116,561 to NTUA to construct utility projects eligible under the CARES Act with the goal and purpose of preventing and combating the spread of COVID-19. Various NTUA multi-utility projects were identified in the Navajo Nation CARES Act expenditure legislation. These projects had to be completed by Dec. 30, 2020.

“We are grateful that Navajo leadership entrusted us to undertake this massive project by approving the CARES Act expenditure legislation,” said NTUA General Manager Walter “Wally” Haase. “This horrendous pandemic severely impacted the Navajo Nation and we prepared to do what we could in order to prevent the spread of the vicious virus.”

NTUA previously noted that prior to the approval of the NN CARES Act, it had been organizing internally to connect hundreds of homes through the Light Up Navajo II 2020 initiative (LUN II). NTUA and 34 public power utilities had a goal to connect the 350 homes starting in April 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic delayed plans for LUN II event.

NTUA originally set a NN CARES Act goal to connect 510 homes by the December deadline, including the 350 families that were to be part of the LUN II project. LUN II was a result of the successful original Light Up Navajo (LUN I) initiative, which was completed in the Spring of 2019. LUN I had the support of 24 APPA communities and 133 electric line crew members who volunteered from all across the country to be a part of the historic event. The program was also supported by a $125,000 grant from APPA’s Demonstration of Energy and Efficiency Developments (DEED) program.

Rather than having the 350 families wait until Spring of 2022, NTUA submitted their homes along with many others for NN CARES Act funding. Because plans were underway for LUN II, including the commitment from 34 public power communities, NTUA already acquired all of the necessary Rights of Way and completed the NN land acquisition processes for the 350 families.

“These projects were shovel ready, as a result of the commitment of these 34 communities, 350 more families were connected to the grid, than would have been,” said Haase. “The Navajo people, especially the families that were connected, have always been extremely grateful to all the support they received from all of the Public Power communities. Your support has forever improved the lives of over 500 American families. THANK YOU!.”

Once the NN CARES Act legislation was in place, NTUA went to work trying to connect as many families as possible by working ten-hour days, including weekends and holidays, except for Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.

NTUA details accomplishments

In weekly progress reports for Navajo Nation leadership, NTUA has provided updates on the various multi-utility CARES Act projects. In the most recent update, NTUA reported that up until December 30, NTUA Districts and Electric Construction Department electric line crews and electricians worked 10-hour days, including weekends, except for Thanksgiving Day, Navajo Nation Family Day and Christmas Day. The Navajo Nation spreads across 27,000 square miles, across northern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah.

While NTUA’s initial goal was to connect 510 families, it reported that it has exceeded this goal extending electricity to the homes of 209 additional families.

As a result of efforts by NTUA and neighboring utilities 719 families are now connected to the electric grid (665 families by NTUA crews; 54 families by neighboring utility crews). Six of these homes were connected after Dec. 30.

NTUA has one more CARES Act major 8-mile powerline project to complete: Salt Springs South, which consists of 12 homes. This project is expected to be completed by Feb. 19, 2021.

The update also noted that on Jan. 19, 2021, NTUA returned $34,051,578 of unspent Navajo Nation CARES Act funds to the Navajo Nation with the understanding that it will be reverted into the Navajo Nation Hardship Fund to help families impacted by COVID-19, NTUA noted.

NTUA also used the update to provide the latest details on its off-grid residential solar program, neighboring electric utility partnerships, electric capacity projects and a number of water-related projects.

“The CARES Act was a tremendous challenge, our crews remained dedicated and moved these projects forward week by week,” Haase said. “Together, they demonstrated our commitment and dedication to extend and provide electricity to families. We did our best. I am extremely proud of what they were able to accomplish even under strenuous times.”

Electric connections after CARES deadline

Following the December 30 deadline, NTUA had 160 families that applied for electric connection remaining on the CARES Act list. While it will not be able to connect them under CARES Act program, NTUA is seeking to find creative solutions to get these families connected.

“When we reached the December deadline, there were still a number of families yet to be connected,” said Haase, explaining that weather, rough terrain, and COVID-19 circumstances delayed construction and thereby prolonged electric connections. “We didn’t want to postpone connection to these families so we are going to finish some of these projects. The families were patiently waiting when the CARES Act clock ran out.”

NTUA has identified potential funding sources to connect 26 of these families, partnering with organizations and individuals, including the Don Woods Family, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is pleased to be an active partner with NTUA in the ongoing effort to connect families to electric services,” said Todd S. Larkin, General Authority Area Seventy for the Church. “We care deeply for the Navajo people and hope to continue in our efforts to be a blessing in their lives.”

In addition, NTUA also received contributions from the Kayenta Solar project, NTUA Wireless, and ATN International, Inc. (ATN).

“Connecting the under-served is core to our mission at ATN,” said Michael T. Prior, ATN Chief Executive Officer. “Normally we focus our efforts on the Navajo Nation and elsewhere on internet and mobile connections through our Choice wireless partnership, but there is nothing more essential than electrical power so we were honored to support NTUA’s critical commitment to connect these additional households on the Navajo Nation.”

In addition to these 26 homes, NTUA’s Kayenta Solar project will fund the connection of five homes in the Kayenta Chapter. The Navajo Nation Council Resources and Development Committee has approved the use of funds that NTUA saved on the construction of two Sihasin (meaning hope & empowerment in the Navajo language) powerline projects that will allow electric line crews to connect another 10 homes.

“We pledged to the community that the proceeds from the Kayenta Solar project would help fund electrification projects,” said Deenise Becenti, NTUA spokesperson. “Kayenta Solar is a blessing and will make it possible for at least five families to use electricity in their homes for very first time.”

NTUA said it has used other funding sources to connect dozens of families that were to be connected under Sihasin powerline projects planned for construction in 2021.

NTUA will be requesting permission from the Navajo Nation Council Resources and Development Committee to use those savings to connect an additional 26 families. Single families that are seeking funds to get connected are being encouraged to submit a Light Up Navajo III application, according to NTUA.

“It is our hope to host another Light Up Navajo initiative in April of 2022,” Becenti said. “We are organizing internally. The CARES Act answered so many prayers; however, there are thousands of families still waiting.”

APPA is in talks with NTUA to support next Light Up Navajo (LUN III) project

NTUA plans to launch another Light Up Navajo project as soon as it is safe to do so and the American Public Power Association is in discussions with NTUA to support the next Light Up Navajo project.

“Bringing people together to perform mutual aid without a storm is incredibly rewarding for the utilities involved and we’re looking forward to supporting future Light Up Navajo events,” said Alex Hofmann, Vice-President for Technical and Operations services at APPA.

Secretary of Energy asks states to prioritize critical energy infrastructure workers for COVID vaccine

January 19, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
January 19, 2021

Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette on Jan. 15 urged the governors of 55 states and territories to prioritize critical infrastructure mission-essential workers during the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the letter, Brouillette noted that the critical infrastructure workforce should be prioritized for receipt of the COVID-19 vaccine, in both the public and private sector, including: investor-owned utilities, municipal-owned utilities, cooperatives, the Department of Energy’s Power Marketing Administrations (PMAs) and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) sites, as well as members of the oil and natural gas subsector.

The electric power industry, including the nation’s investor-owned utilities, municipal-owned utilities, cooperatives, and the PMAs, “provide 24-7/365 electricity, necessary for the health and safety of all Americans,” he wrote in the letter.

“These critical electric infrastructure utility workers support and preserve the infrastructure and operations centers critical to maintaining the backbone of the electric grid. By prioritizing their health and safety for vaccine distribution alongside other frontline workers, we assure electricity distribution to the nation’s rural and urban communities,” he said.

Brouillette noted that essential critical infrastructure workers at the PMAs and NNSA sites conduct highly specialized tasks and cannot work from home or in isolation from others on the job site. “The PMAs operate electric systems and sell the electrical output of federally-owned and -operated hydroelectric dams in 34 states; their employees operate facilities that are needed to maintain the reliability and security of the nation’s energy grid.”

Similarly, NNSA’s essential workers “handle a range of issues including nuclear weapon systems, global and potential domestic nuclear security threats, the management and disposal of hazardous nuclear materials, and the safe and secure transport of nuclear materials. These individuals continue to work every day, putting both themselves and their families’ safety at risk in service of our nation,” wrote Brouillette.

He said that prioritizing vaccination access for mission-essential workers is consistent with guidance contained in the October 2, 2020, Framework for Equitable Allocation of COVID-19 vaccine, by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and the October 29, 2020, COVID-19 Vaccination Program Interim Operational Guidance for Jurisdictions Playbook, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These reports recommend critical infrastructure workers be considered for prioritization based upon job function and exposure to risk.

“The PMAs’ and NNSA’s mission-essential workers must receive the vaccine through the states and territories, and therefore I respectfully ask that states and territories also include federal energy workers along with private energy sector workers as a high priority for voluntary access to initial inoculation. Such work is critical to public health and safety, as well as our economic and national security,” Brouillette said.

Snohomish County PUD makes significant progress in power restoration efforts

January 14, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
January 14, 2021

Washington State’s Snohomish County PUD reported making significant progress in restoring power to customers in the wake of storms that hit the PUD’s service territory this week.

Snohomish on Jan. 14 noted that crews have been working all through the night and had restored almost 80,000 customers in the last 24 hours.

“We’re down to 15,530 customers out from a high of 95k. We will keep working until power is restored to everyone,” the PUD said in a Facebook post.

In an earlier Facebook post, the PUD noted that it had “reached out to our fellow public power utilities in the region and help is on the way! Five mutual aid crews are currently working in the field, including line crews from Benton PUD, Grant PUD, Grays Harbor PUD and Okanogan PUD.”

Mutual aid contracts allow the PUD to reach out during major storms to ask for help and get the lights on faster and safer, Snohomish said.

FERC asks CDC to prioritize vaccination for energy workforce

January 14, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
January 14, 2021

Commissioners with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Jan. 13 sent a letter to the leaders of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) asking the CDC to prioritize a subset of the energy workforce for the COVID-19 vaccine.

The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recently updated its vaccine allocation guidance to place the energy workforce in Phase 1c of distribution priority.

In their letter, the FERC Commissioners asked the CDC to consider prioritizing a subset of the energy workforce to a higher level (Phase 1b).

“We recognize that developing vaccine guidance is a complex, iterative task that requires the balancing of numerous equities,” the Commissioners wrote in their letter.

“We write with a narrow request: as the Advisory Committee continues to review and update its recommendations, we urge you to consider that a subset of the energy workforce be included in Phase 1b — specifically, highly trained electrical field workers, power plant operators, transmission and distribution grid operators, and personnel who procure the energy needed to balance the grid on a moment-to-moment basis,” the letter said.

“Those workers’ duties can only be performed on-site, usually in close quarters, where full adherence to social distancing guidelines is impossible. And while these utility employees can be counted as among the most critical among the American workforce, they represent a relatively small population,” the FERC commissioners wrote.

“We understand that the number is likely to be on the order of thousands of workers in each state. As such, we urge you to consider prioritizing these workers as the CDC continues revising its vaccine guidance.”

The letter was signed by FERC Chairman James Danly and Commissioners Neil Chatterjee, Richard Glick, Allison Clements and Mark Christie.

APPA supports prioritization of COVID-19 vaccine for mission essential workers

Organizations representing state and local governments should ask their members to designate energy industry mission-essential workers as high priority for voluntary access to initial inoculation against COVID-19, a group of energy industry trade associations including the American Public Power Association and unions said in a Dec. 3 letter.

Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency

Distribution and prioritization of access to vaccinations is a state and locally-lead process.

The American Public Power Association is urging its members to contact their respective local and state health departments to articulate the need for access to vaccinations.

Meanwhile, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in December 2020 highlighted the Essential Critical Infrastructure Workforce Guidance Version 4.0. “Although this version of the guidance is unchanged from the August 2020 release, we want to reiterate our belief that it remains an important tool for COVID-19 planning, even in this new environment,” CISA said.

CISA issued the Essential Critical Infrastructure Workforce Guidance for COVID-19 response in collaboration with other federal agencies, State and local governments, and the private sector.

The guidance is intended to help state, local, tribal, and territorial officials and organizations protect their workers and communities and ensure the continued safe and secure operation of critical infrastructure, by identifying the universe of essential workers that may require specialized risk management strategies so that they can work safely.

It can also be used to begin planning and preparing for the allocation of scarce resources used to protect essential workers against COVID-19.

Missouri public power utilities bring power back to customers in wake of ice storms

January 4, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
January 4, 2021

Missouri public power utilities in recent days have been hard at work restoring power to customers who lost power in the wake of ice storms that hit the state.

In the wake of ice storms that swept through Missouri on January 1, line crews from several public power utilities volunteered to help restore power to the cities of Hannibal and Monroe City, Mo., the Missouri Public Utility Alliance (MPUA) reported in a news release.

The response was coordinated through a mutual aid network of utilities that are members of the MPUA.

The 84 utilities in the network are public power electric utilities that have agreements in place allowing staff to assist neighboring communities and states during widespread outages in other communities. Assisting utilities are reimbursed by the communities receiving assistance.

In Hannibal, after significant outages were caused by downed tree limbs hitting power lines, line crews from Columbia Water & Light, Harrisonville, Macon Municipal Utilities and Rolla Municipal Utilities responded to assist the Hannibal Board of Public Works (HBPW) utility staff in power restoration and repair work.

The combined four-city mutual aid response to HBPW included 17 lineworkers with 11 utility work vehicles, including bucket and digger trucks.

In a Facebook post, HBPW reported with continued efforts the morning of Jan. 3, “we have restored service to all parts across our service territory. We estimate we have 25 or fewer individual services that need to be restored. Several of those require additional repairs from electricians before our crew can reconnect service but we are standing by when needed.”

The quick recovery efforts “could not have been possible without the assistance of our mutual aid partnership and the extra tree removal assistance,” the utility said.

In Monroe City, electric crews repairing outages were assisted by a crew of four lineworkers from the city of Higginsville. After power restoration at Monroe City was complete by noon on Jan. 2, the Higginsville crew traveled to Hannibal to join in the HBPW restoration effort.

Meanwhile, City Utilities (CU) Electric Department in Springfield, Mo., on Jan. 1 reported that it responded to numerous outages throughout the CU service territory. “Overnight, CU line and tree crews began responding to outages as weather permitted. The majority of the outages have been created by limbs and trees contacting the power lines. However, there is at least one utility structure that has been damaged. Additional line and tree crews are arriving to assist CU crews,” the utility reported.

On Jan. 2, the utility said that its crews were working on the final remaining outages from the New Year’s Day ice storm, with approximately 70 customers remaining without electric service as of mid-day.

“While our goal and efforts are to restore power to all of our customers there are some that will require work to be completed by a licensed electrician before we can reestablish service,” CU noted.

The storm created outages throughout the CU Electric service territory with approximately 50 percent of feeders being impacted.

City Utilities line crews began responding to outages shortly after 1:00 a.m. on New Year’s Day as the storm began impacting the city. Response was slowed and affected by the continuing weather pattern as it dropped rain and ice as temperatures fell in the Springfield area, CU said. Line crews were assisted by numerous contract line and tree crews to restore service to customers.

Tennessee public power utilities restore power in wake of snowstorms

December 30, 2020

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
December 30, 2020

Public power utilities in Tennessee in the last week of December restored power to customers affected by snowstorms that hit the state.

On Dec. 24, Knoxville Utilities Board (KUB) tweeted that its crews were working to restore power throughout the day and monitoring and responding to any outage events throughout the night as snow fell. Crews worked overnight to reduce outages to less than 9,000 after the heavy snow, KUB subsequently reported on Dec. 25.

KUB in a Dec. 26 update said that approximately 60 crews were working to restore power including assistance from Lenoir City Utility Board and Appalachian Electric Cooperative, crews from Nashville and Jackson, Tennessee, and crews from Alabama, Kentucky, and North Carolina.

In the update, KUB reported that large numbers of trees and wires were reported down following the storm. “Although KUB has made significant progress since yesterday, the heavy, wet snow and freezing temperatures are causing additional limbs and trees to fall, creating additional outages,” the public power utility reported in the Dec. 26 update.

KUB noted that crews have had challenges accessing the lines due to the number of downed trees and other damage. “Even getting to the job has been difficult in some cases where snow and ice has made travel treacherous.”

Every job is different, but a typical repair job can take up to four to six hours, while replacing a pole can take a minimum of six to eight hours, the utility said. Given these challenges, a definite time frame for restoration of specific areas was not available, as of the Dec. 26 update. At the time of the 9 a.m. update, KUB reported approximately 3,300 customers without power.

In a Dec. 28 tweet, KUB said that crews continued restoration efforts for just under 20 customers, down from more than 31,000 customers who lost power after Thursday’s snow.

Meanwhile, Tennessee public power utility Newport Utilities (NU) reported on Dec. 30 that as of 9:00 a.m. it had 227 outages remaining. “Multiple crews from surrounding areas are assisting NU electric crews in replacing broken poles and untangling the gnarly mess of downed spans of electric wire. The goal is to restore power to the remaining areas today,” it said in a Facebook post.

And less than 1,000 Sevier County, Tenn., residents remained without power following a Christmas Eve blackout that impacted more than 20,000, reported Tennessee’s WVLT on Dec. 28.

The latest updates on power outages can be found on Sevier County Electric System’s website.

Public power officials detail plans for COVID-19 vaccine distribution

December 16, 2020

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
December 16, 2020

Public power officials in a Dec. 3 webinar hosted by the American Public Power Association discussed how the public power community is preparing for the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.

Webinar participants were Matthew Sinn, Manager of Emergency Management at the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Barry Moline, Executive Director at the California Municipal Utilities Association (CMUA), and Thomas Pierpoint, Austin Energy’s Vice President of Engineering.

At the start of the webinar, Sam Rozenberg, Director of Security and Resilience at APPA, noted that APPA, working with CMUA, has developed a template letter that utility organizations can send to their local and state government leaders requesting vaccine prioritization.

“APPA acknowledges that vaccine prioritization for the electric utility workforce should be after that of health care workers and obviously the most vulnerable of our population,” Rozenberg said.

TVA’s Sinn said that states are likely to use multiple methods to get vaccines to people including delivery by public health strike forces or through partnerships with major pharmacies.

With respect to the question of how the utility sector will receive vaccines, Sinn said that “in TVA’s case, none of our seven states have finalized selection of critical populations for each phase and we know that each of the seven states has their own perspective on whether energy sector workers should be eligible and are eligible.” He said it’s unclear to TVA “whether states will actually require providers to screen for residency.”

TVA’s power service territory covers 80,000 square miles, including most of Tennessee and parts of Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina and Virginia.

Sinn said that “there’s a lot that’s unclear.” For example, he said that it remains unclear “how our states will prioritize electric sector workers and other utility workers.”

He said that TVA’s emergency management group has acquired and is reviewing state plans. “We maintain open weekly communication with our state departments of public health and the associated emergency management agencies for each state,” Sinn noted.

“We have sought guidance from them on what we can do to best prepare and that seems to be to segment our workforce. We are looking at segmenting our workforce around our business continuity plan. We’re looking at methodologies to do this right now.”

Sinn also noted that “our own medical team is keeping an eye out with local medical service providers to understand what they know about how the vaccine will be distributed.”

CMUA, other organizations send letter related to vaccine prioritization

CMUA was a signatory to a Dec. 4 letter related to vaccine prioritization that was sent to officials with the California Department of Public Health.

“The undersigned organizations, representing the electric, natural gas, and water sector, respectfully urge you to ensure that California’s energy and water Essential Critical Infrastructure Workers – as identified by the State Public Health Officer – are part of the Phase 1-B vaccine distribution of the state’s COVID-19 Vaccination Plan,” the letter said.

The essential critical infrastructure workers “critical to keeping the water and power flowing have remained on the job since Day 1 of the COVID-19 crisis to keep the lights on and water flowing across California,” CMUA and the other organizations said in the letter. “For the greater good, these essential critical infrastructure workers have been putting their personal health at risk every day. Providing them reasonable priority access to the COVID-19 vaccine will help ensure that they can remain on the job to perform their critical functions while protecting the health and safety of themselves and those around them,” the letter said.

The groups said they recognize the seriousness of the decisions that must be made when it comes to prioritizing what appears to be a safe and efficacious vaccination for COVID-19. “We understand that there are myriad priorities and metrics to consider, including complex coordination with federal and local government partners. We also recognize the importance of ensuring California’s healthcare workforce is prioritized in receiving the vaccine.”

The Interim draft of the California Department of Public Health’s COVID-19 vaccination plan, dated Oct. 16, 2020, provides that people at increased risk for severe illness or death from COVID-19 and other essential workers, may receive the vaccine in Phase 1-B of the three-phase approach to vaccine allocation.

The interim draft does not define what are considered “other essential workers,” but does recognize that the state is currently identifying and estimating the critical populations for Phase 1, the letter noted.

California’s state public health officer has designated certain utility employees as essential critical infrastructure workers. “These essential critical infrastructure workers perform work at critical infrastructure locations (such as water treatment plants and power plants) to keep electric and water infrastructure operating in neighborhoods, making necessary repairs to utility lines, and in the field carrying out wildfire prevention activities such as vegetation management and inspections for safe operations,” the letter said.

“To reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission, our organizations, member organizations, and essential critical infrastructure workers, have changed the way they work,” the groups noted.

For example, utilities are using staggered shifts or smaller teams of essential critical infrastructure workers.

“However, due to the nature of the work, there are times when these employees need to be in close proximity to each other, making vaccination – and PPE – highly important to the job,” the letter noted. “For example, essential critical infrastructure workers in grid control rooms often work in open floor plan environments with no walls or separation between desks, and the work requires frequent consultation between employees. Some work activities also require essential critical infrastructure workers to be in the community conducting field work, often in teams, which increases their potential exposure to the virus.”

During the webinar, Moline said that “we are surveying our members to quantify the essential workers. We actually don’t know the number right now, but we need to know that number so that we can pinpoint it and let them know how many vaccines we think we need.”

Moline said that “if you have not yet communicated with your state department of health,” that should be done immediately.

“These are people that don’t know us. These are medical people and we don’t necessarily interact frequently with the department of health,” he said. “We’ve found they’ve been really open to learning about our essential workers and the valuable service they provide our community.”

Scenarios for vaccine distribution

In his presentation, Austin Energy’s Pierpoint included a list of scenarios tied to the distribution of vaccines. “These scenarios might change over time. We’ll probably have new scenarios emerge and as this whole vaccination process works its course, we may have multiple scenarios in place simultaneously,” he said.

“I think each utility and maybe us as an industry group should identify the scenarios and manage outcomes that can best protect our workforces,” said Pierpoint.

Scenarios listed by the Austin Energy official in his presentation include broad government-facilitated distribution, federally facilitated distribution specifically geared for critical infrastructure workers, vaccines available for workers via their traditional healthcare channels, utilities working with their key health care providers to streamline worker vaccinations and utilities directly obtaining and administering vaccines.

Pierpoint also outlined guidelines for utilities to consider in helping their workforce navigate through the vaccine rollout process.

Included in those guidelines, he said, is that it is going to be a lengthy effort.

In addition, he said that utilities will probably not be able to require that personnel get vaccines. But utilities may have the ability to require that returning personnel provide evidence of a vaccination or positive anti-bodies. “Having said that, there’s a lot of aspects of this that need to be explored in advance.”

FDA recently authorized emergency use of vaccine

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this month authorized emergency use of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech for emergency use and the vaccine is now being distributed and administered in the U.S.

And the coronavirus vaccine made by Moderna “is highly protective, according to new data released on Tuesday, setting the stage for its emergency authorization this week by federal regulators and the start of its distribution across the country,” the New York Times reported on Dec. 15.

APPA supports prioritization of COVID-19 vaccine for mission essential workers

The letter was sent to the Council of State Governments, International City/Council Management Association, National Association of Counties, National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), National Council of State Legislatures, National Governors Association, National League of Cities, and the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

APPA weighs in on FEMA proposed rules tied to disaster grant closeout procedures

December 14, 2020

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
December 14, 2020

The American Public Power Association recently weighed in on proposed rules put forth by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) related to disaster grant closeout procedures.

The Dec. 10 comments were submitted by Alex Hofmann, APPA’s Vice President, Technical and Operations Services.

“Every year, our member utilities critical facilities and infrastructure, including poles, lines, and transformers, are impacted by extreme weather events such as ice storms, fires, tornadoes, floods, hurricanes,” Hofmann noted.

When this damage comes as a part of a major disaster as declared by the President of the United States, public power response and recovery costs are eligible for reimbursement through FEMA.

These grants, authorized by the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act and administered under FEMA’s Public Assistance Program, “can amount to tens of millions of dollars and are critical to the ability of our member utilities, cities, and towns to recover from disasters,” the comments said.

Therefore, FEMA’s development and application of the closeout procedures policy is of great interest to APPA.

FEMA’s proposal to allow unlimited tolling of the statute of limitations is not what Congress intended nor what the statute provides, APPA said in the comments.

FEMA argues that it can retain the right to toll the statute because seeking additional information “constitutes the beginning of an administrative action.”

However, the actual effect is to puts the grantee in a permanent state of limbo, APPA argued. “On the one hand the threat of clawback remains, but on the other, FEMA has taken no administrative action against which the grantee can seek relief.”

This is “precisely the kind of abusive situation” that Section 705(a) (Statute of Limitations) of the Stafford Act was intended to address, Hofmann wrote.

“It also subverts the fair trade-off intended by section 705(a) – the grantee must wait up to three years before it can be certain that FEMA will not take administrative actions to recover a public assistant grant; whereas FEMA has just three years to discover ‘an issue that the recipient and/or subrecipient needs to address’ and take administrative actions resulting from that issue.”

FEMA’s proposal “is all the more frustrating because it implies that as a regular course of business, FEMA will not really begin to review certified final expenditure reports until years after the fact and that grantees, when a request for information is made, should assume that they will have to wait more than three years to have such issues resolved,” Hofmann wrote.

“Again, that is not what Congress intended when it enacted section 705(a). What Congress intended was that FEMA would use the three-year period to complete its review of a completed report, to make requests for additional information, and to decide whether to seek administrative action.”

Moreover, there is nothing about the intended process — rather than the one proposed by FEMA — that puts FEMA at a disadvantage, the comments pointed out.

“For example, one of the more common reasons for taking administrative actions to recover is a grantee’s failure to adequately document a public assistance request. The intended process simply requires FEMA to decide sooner, rather than later, that a request is inadequately documented.”

APPA also argued in its comments that FEMA should not “re-open” a project after it has been approved and closed out to de-obligate funds.

Once FEMA has reviewed and closed a project, FEMA should not be allowed to later reopen the project to reverse these determinations to the detriment of a recipient or sub-recipient, the trade group said.

“Post approval and close out challenges to procurement should not be allowed, as proper procurement supports reasonableness of the costs, and FEMA’s closeout of a project includes confirmation that FEMA has determined a cost is reasonable – so procurement compliance at that point should be moot,” wrote Hofmann.

APPA supports prioritization of COVID-19 vaccine for mission essential workers

December 7, 2020

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
December 7, 2020

“With so many Americans now working and learning from home, the safe and reliable energy our members and federal electric utilities produce and deliver is more important than ever,“ the letter said.

“Earlier this year, we asked your members to prioritize access to testing and personal protective equipment (PPE) for a small subset of highly skilled, mission-essential energy workers. We appreciate the support you provided,” APPA and the other energy groups and unions said.

With COVID-19 vaccines now nearing final approval and release, “we are asking that your members designate our mission-essential workers as high priority for voluntary access to initial inoculation. These employees are highly specialized and cannot work from home or in isolation from others on the job site. The work they perform is critical to public health and safety, as well as our economic and national security.”

The energy industry trade associations and unions said that prioritizing vaccination access for mission-essential workers is consistent with guidance contained in the October 2, 2020, “Framework for Equitable Allocation of COVID-19 Vaccine” by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The final report recommends that critical infrastructure workers be considered for prioritization based upon their job function and exposure to risks.

“Please encourage your members to reach out to their individual electric and natural gas utilities in their states to discuss vaccine prioritization for mission-essential workers who choose to receive a vaccination—those who operate power generation facilities, staff the control rooms that serve as the nerve centers for transmission and distribution networks, and maintain the system and do emergency repairs as well as maintenance during planned refueling and capital projects.”

Along with APPA, other energy trade groups signing on to the letter were:

American Gas Association
American Public Gas Association
Edison Electric Institute
Electric Power Supply Association
National Rural Electric Cooperative Association
Nuclear Energy Institute

Unions signing on to the letter were United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and North America’s Building Trades Unions.

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