Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) will conduct its annual emergency readiness exercise on May 18 to review the company's storm restoration process and test the Incident Command System (ICS) plan.
ICS is a nationally recognized and accepted emergency management process used by all levels of government – federal, state, tribal and local – as well as by many non-governmental organizations and those in the private sector to coordinate the response to major storms or other natural disasters. JCP&L implemented ICS in 2013.
The exercise will simulate real-time events, prepare employees assigned to storm restoration duties and introduce storm process enhancements. Overall, approximately 100 company employees from the Operations, Engineering, Communications, External Affairs, Customer Support, Facilities and Planning and Analysis groups will be involved in the exercise, which will be held at JCP&L's Red Bank headquarters. In addition, representatives from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities will observe.
"Our company's storm restoration process has been recognized numerous times by electric industry organizations over the years for its effectiveness, which is proof that these training exercises work," said Tony Hurley, JCP&L vice president of Operations. "The drills provide opportunities for our employees to sharpen their skills as we head into the spring and summer storm season. Along with our ongoing infrastructure enhancements, these exercises are another way we enhance service reliability for our customers."
