Press Release

PUC Finalizes Policy Statement on Utility Outage Response, Public Notification Guidelines, Establishes Working Group

Published on 3/6/2014

Filed under: Electric Gas Water and Wastewater Telecommunications

HARRISBURG – The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) today finalized a proposed policy statement on service outage response recovery and public notification guidelines and established a Critical Infrastructure Interdependency Working Group.

“Today’s action represents further progress in assuring that significant measures are in place to expedite the restoration of electric service for all customers,” said Commissioner Pamela A. Witmer in a statement.  Regardless of whether the outage is the result of a storm, or physical or cyber attack, I am very pleased that the Commission is establishing a Critical Infrastructure working group that will bring all utilities and other partners into one room to discuss best practices that will benefit residential and business customers in this Commonwealth.”

The Commission voted 5-0 to finalize the policy statement and create the working group. The policy statement proposes additional preparation and response measures as guidance for EDCs after review of the utilities’ storm response for Hurricanes Irene and Sandy.

The Commission also addressed the cost/benefit analysis regarding implementation of the policy statement by the EDCs, and potentially other industries, especially in regards to the proposed storm damage and outage prediction models.

The working group will be made up of jurisdictional electric distribution companies (EDCs), incumbent telephone, facilities-based competitive telephone, water, wastewater, and natural gas distribution utilities with 5,000 or more customers as well as non-jurisdictional stakeholders such as cable providers and wireless carriers. One of the goals is for parties to come to an understanding of their critical interdependencies and how to coordinate restoration of services where more than one party is affected in a geographic area.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission balances the needs of consumers and utilities; ensures safe and reliable utility service at reasonable rates; protects the public interest; educates consumers to make independent and informed utility choices; furthers economic development; and fosters new technologies and competitive markets in an environmentally sound manner.

For recent news releases and video of select Commission proceedings or more information about the PUC, visit our website at www.puc.pa.gov. Follow the PUC on Twitter – @PA_PUC for all things utility.  “Like” PAPowerSwitch on Facebook for easy access to information on electric shopping.

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Docket No. M-2013-2382943

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