Emergency Plan Reviews

Over the course of my career, I have had the opportunity to review numerous energy company emergency plans.  Some have been stellar, and some have been…well, in need of some major enhancements.

Emergency plans have to meet regulatory requirements. However, beyond compliance, plans need to be multi-hazard based, easy to comprehend and use, and kept current.  Employees must be trained on the plan and have a clear understanding of their roles during activation.

Here are some of the issues that I have noted during review of operators’ emergency plans.

No names, no public shaming-just observations…

·         Plan reviews-not current or pencil whipped

·         Emergency contact lists out of date

·         Plans “borrowed” from other operators that contain former operator information

·         No organization or structure identified (Think ICS)

·         No link to corporate response plan (two separate orbs)

·         Incident Command “administered” by the corporate crisis management structure at the tactical level

·         Lack of recognition of the authority of public sector responders

·         No mechanism established for testing the plan and the associated response

·         Multiple tactical/operational plans that aren’t linked

·         Plans that are so complex, the employees don’t understand them

·         Plans that are not revised after drills/exercises identify “areas for improvement”

The worst time to find out that your emergency plan is deficient is when you actually need it during response to incident.