November is National Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Month and the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission is raising awareness of the many challenges and threats to critical utility systems.
In order to test the collaborative planning needed to deal with challenges such as severe weather, natural disasters, and cyber threats, the PUC recently participated in the third annual Operation Blue Flame exercise.
This training session allowed those involved to experience a scenario involving the disruption of natural gas distribution across a large geographic area during a period of extremely cold weather.
Organizations like the PUC develop plans for this kind of situation including mass sheltering and feeding of residents and animals as well as security concerns, economic issues, and resource coordination between state and local levels.