2021 GridEx VI Emergency Exercise Gets 4 New States
The 2021 coast-to-coast GridEx VI exercise is scheduled for November 16-17. This year, 4 new states will participate in the drill, which aims to stretch and test emergency preparedness in the energy sector by simulating a system hacking event and a physical breach. The 4 participating states are California, Connecticut, Illinois and Utah.
Nuts and Bolts of GridEx VI
The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) conducts the GridEx exercises every other year. The previous exercise in 2019 had over 7,000 participants from over 500 organizations including personnel from 42 state governments, utility personnel, and first responders. The 4 states that participated in 2019 were Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho and Maryland.
The 4 states participating in the 2021 GridEx VI event were brought onboard by the National Governors Association (NGA), which works closely with NERC to optimize each exercise’s attendance. NGA also closely coordinates with personnel from each state to prepare for the event, and to capture lessons learned and best practices after the fact via the completion of after-action reporting. NGA also helps the participants implement their action plans over the subsequent 4- to 6-month period.
As with all exercises and drills, the goal is not to test individuals; rather, the goal is to identify process gaps, and enhance communication and collaboration between the various external entities. An emergency scenario or simulation is presented to the participants, and they must then figure out how to proceed, who to communicate with, and what steps to take.
In the final analysis, I have always been a fan of large-scale emergency exercises, and the 2021 GridEx VI exercise is certainly no exception. One of the trickiest parts of restoration and recovery is the collaboration and communication of various external entities that rarely interact under stressful circumstances. Practicing working with outside parties, as well as identifying and then plugging process gaps, are two incredibly valuable outcomes of this, and the more these outcomes can be achieved, the better!
