EPP’s Michael Caffrey Speaks at the 2014 Storm Restoration and Emergency Planning for the Power Sector Conference
Hammonton, NJ – April 2014 – Michael Caffrey, Vice President of Operations for Emergency Preparedness Partnerships (EPP), has been hand-picked to be a key speaker and moderator at the 2014 Storm Restoration and Emergency Planning for the Power Sector Conference to be held in Toronto. Caffrey is slated to be a panel moderator and a workshop leader.
Caffrey will be a presenter and a panel moderator at the session entitled, “Examining Regional Coordination and Cross-Border Mutual Aid and Assistance Agreements to Share Resources for Severe Weather Events.” The panel will encompass Devin McCarty, Director of Transmission and Distribution at CEA, Larry Brownell, Executive Director at Northeast Public Power Association, Bill Smeaton from HydroOne Networks, Inc., and Tim Hayes, Manager of Transmission and Distribution Operations Services and Emergency Response at Central Hudson Gas & Electric. He will also lead a workshop entitled “Storm Planning and Response 101: Ensuring Your Utility is Prepared and Can Successfully Respond to the Next Severe Weather Event.”
Caffrey is the logical choice to lead these discussions because he has more than 43 years of experience in the utility industry. His areas of specialization for EPP include managing storm response and restoration events, conducting physical security assessments, and planning for critical infrastructure protection. He has been a featured speaker at dozens of industry conferences including programs organized by Edison Electric Institute (EEI), New York Mutual Assistance Group (NYMAP), Western Energy Institute (WEI), the State of Maryland, the State of Delaware, the State of New Jersey, and many more.
“Although I’ve participated in dozens of conferences and seminars over the years, I am very much looking forward to the 2014 Storm Restoration and Emergency Planning for the Power Sector Conference,” said Caffrey. “Not only is this conference designed to educate industry stakeholders on strategies to improve prevention, response and recovery from severe power outages, but it will also delve into what we learned from Hurricane Sandy which, due to its unprecedented nature, is extremely valuable information.”
The conference, which is sponsored by the Canadian Electricity Association, runs June 10-11 and features a huge variety of storm restoration topics that are critical to utilities and municipalities. Recent storms and severe climate events have placed heightened stress on utility infrastructure. With greater reliability demanded by the general public, local utilities, emergency planners, cities, and governing bodies must respond with new strategies, resources, and adaptation techniques to strengthen the electric grid. Therefore, the conference is focused on topics such as best practices from recent storms, optimal communication strategies, mutual aid and assistance programs, resource coordination strategies, and technological innovations that can help reduce the impact of major storms.
The conference is designed for emergency planners, outage managers, operations directors, presidents, control room managers, operation planners, field crew managers, city planners, municipal administrators, response coordinators, consultants, engineering directors, academics, urban planners, safety managers, and any other person who has a hand in his or her company’s emergency planning and disaster preparedness policies and procedures.
“If you’re in the utility industry, this is one of those must-attend events, and because of that my #1 objective is to deliver maximum informational value to all the attendees,” said Caffrey. “Proper disaster planning is more important today than it was just 5 years ago, and so it’s important that all the participants come out of the conference with a full understanding of what needs to be done in severe weather events.”
