Homeland Security Assignment

Library Research Assignment

Refer to the information from this week's course materials regarding a power utility's drafting of a priorities list.

In some cases, community leaders recognize those assets (often privately owned and operated) as necessary to the security and protection of a community. In these cases, leaders will often approach private sector representatives and establish formal or informal agreements with them. One example is when a city or state works with an electric utility company to develop a closely-guarded list of priorities for who will receive electricity in the event of power failures, outages, or degradation. These lists may include governmental offices, hospitals, grocery stores, or individuals relying on oxygen. Meanwhile, a military installation within a community may have coordinated priorities of its own with the utility.

Surplus power generated from this installation may be sent out for distribution by the power company to support critical needs in the community or in a neighboring community. In this example, the partnership is multiway: The utility prioritizes power to both the city and the military base, and they potentially send surplus or their own power back to the utility for distribution to either or both of them. Remember that power can be generated by many means, including coal-burning, hydroelectric, induction, nuclear, solar, and wind. These forms may be harnessed at even the individual level with surplus energy sold "back."

You are a staff officer who works in the city of Solace, Wyoming's emergency management planning division. You have been assigned to draft a memorandum that both informs and advises the city's emergency manager, city council members, and mayor about prioritizing recipients for electric power provision and restoration. To effectively do this, you need to understand and simplify for the city's leaders the factors that the local electric company, Elco Power, takes into account in prioritizing these two separate functions-provision and restoration of power.

Assignment Guidelines

Complete the following:

• Address the following in 750 words by drafting a memorandum for the city's leaders listed above; define any terms that you will use with which they may be unfamiliar:

o Describe what form of generation Elco Power uses to provide power to customers and the community. Give a brief background as to how dependent the community is upon this company.

o Name and describe at least 3 threats that are considered the most significant in Elco Power's estimation.

- For each threat, describe the types of crises that might result and how these would likely impact the city of Solace.
- For each threat, describe fully Elco Power's and the community's ability to do the following:
- Prevent the threat or likely crisis
- Prepare for the threat or likely crisis
- Withstand the crisis resulting from the threat
- Mitigate the threat or resulting crisis
- Manage the consequences of the crisis resulting from the threat

o Research and explain who and why specific individuals or organizations would most likely be on Elco's priority list for power provision during an outage. Include a summary of the company's rationale for its priorities in the memorandum.

o Research and explain who and why specific individuals or organizations would most likely be on Elco's priority list for power restoration during an outage. Include a summary of the company's rationale for its priorities in the memorandum.

o Detail your recommendations for the city as to what modifications, if any, the city should request from Elco Power in each of its priority lists. If you advise the city to wholly adopt Elco's lists, explain your reasoning in full.

Although this scenario uses a notional power company, you should research the parameters that are used by an actual company to make decisions regarding these activities. The library, Internet, and actual power company personnel are just a few of the sources that you might consider.