Statewide Emergency Exercise Prepares Agencies for Severe Weather and Other Events
May 22 2019 - 10:58AM
Business Wire
ComEd brings more than 70 organizations
together today to prepare for worst-case scenarios
To help ensure that critical infrastructure is protected and can
be restored quickly when severe weather or other catastrophic
events occur in Illinois, ComEd has organized a statewide drill –
the only exercise of its kind led by a power company in the U.S.
Called “Operation Power Play,” the drill will test how agencies
coordinate in the face of a significant weather or manmade
event.
The drill involves more than 50 state, county, municipal and
private entities, such as the City of Chicago’s Office of Emergency
Management and Communications (OEMC), Illinois Emergency Management
Agency (IEMA), DuPage County Office of Homeland Security and
Emergency Management, Argonne National Laboratory, Peoples Gas,
North Shore Gas, Illinois Institute of Technology (Illinois Tech),
Ameren Illinois and MidAmerican Energy.
“We see news stories every day about natural disasters and
physical or cyberattacks that could affect infrastructure,
including the energy grid, that families and businesses depend on
every day,” said Joe Dominguez, CEO of ComEd. “This exercise gives
us the chance to cooperate with municipal and governmental
officials and our partner energy companies to make sure we’re
prepared to respond safely to emergencies and protect the people of
Illinois.”
Operation Power Play will take place at Illinois Tech, where
participating agencies will conduct table top exercises and
showcase equipment and vehicles that would be used to respond to an
emergency. During the exercise, ComEd will coordinate a
comprehensive, multiagency response to simulated disasters,
including extreme flooding and related damage and a cyberattack.
Partner agencies will participate onsite and remotely at locations
throughout the state.
"Here in Chicago, our public safety departments participate in
exercises all year long to strengthen their ability to share
information, manage on-scene response and allocate resources,” said
OEMC Executive Director Rich Guidice. “This exercise complements
our work to enhance our capabilities, improve collaboration and
develop best practices."
"We are excited to be able to host this year's Operation Power
Play exercise here on Illinois Tech's historic Mies van der Rohe
Campus," said Alan W. Cramb, President of Illinois Institute of
Technology. "Today's exercise not only allows us the chance to help
convene our partners across the public and private sector, but it
also provides us with an opportunity to showcase the leading-edge
work being done in energy, infrastructure, and network
communication at Illinois Tech each and every day."
"In large-scale disasters or emergency events, it is critically
important that the key public and private responders are well
coordinated and able to communicate quickly and effectively," said
Richard J. Mark, Chairman and President, Ameren Illinois.
"Participating in a simulation like this one helps us prepare to
meet any challenges we may face."
Activities taking place across the state as part of the drill
will include:
- Metropolitan water Reclamation District
– simulated plane crash and damage to Stickney Water reclamation
Plant
- CyrusOne (data facility for Chicago
Mercantile Exchange) – loss of transmission tower and customer-
owned substation, on backup generation, fuel shortage, security
breach
- Lake County Emergency Management Agency
(EMA) – opening their emergency operations center and a joint
operations center, full-scale exercise
- MidAmerican Energy – opening their
emergency operations center and responding to simulated record
flooding in Davenport, Ia., and Rock Island, Ill.
- American Water – responding to tornado
damage to their pump station in Belleville, Ill.
- Ameren – flying drones in DuPage County
as a cross-organizational damage assessment resource
- Comcast and Verizon – testing impacts
to physical tower infrastructure south of Interstate 80
- Wilbur Wright College – simulating
blackout to campus and restoration plan in conjunction with ComEd
and its Exelon sister energy companies PECO, PHI and BGE
- Rush University and Medical Center, and
Illinois Tech – responding to tornadic damage
- Aqua Illinois, City of Rochelle, ComEd,
MidAmerican Energy, Rush University – exercising responses to
cyber-attacks
- 14 emergency operations centers will
open – Air National Guard, American Water, Comcast, ComEd,
CyrusOne, DuPage County, IEMA (SEOC, BEOC), Lake County EMA,
MidAmerican Energy, MWRD, OEMC, Verizon, Walmart
“Partnerships between government agencies and the private sector
allow communities to respond and recover faster following
disasters,” said Acting IEMA Director, Alicia Tate-Nadeau. “I
applaud our private sector partners for their dedication to
preparedness. Preparing today for the disasters of tomorrow will
ensure Illinois is ready to respond to all types of hazards,
anywhere in our state.”
Following the exercise, participants will meet to review
processes, discuss learnings and look for opportunities for
improvement.
Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd) is a unit of Chicago-based
Exelon Corporation (NYSE: EXC), the nation’s leading competitive
energy provider, with approximately 10 million customers. ComEd
provides service to approximately 4 million customers across
northern Illinois, or 70 percent of the state’s population. For
more information visit ComEd.com, and connect with the company on
Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190522005573/en/
John SchoenComEd312-394-8785 or 847-682-3947 (m)
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