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Emergency Preparedness

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission announced that in late August it had once again joined with government agencies, utilities, emergency responders, and other stakeholders around the world in a unique "transactional exercise" to test reactions to and recovery from a large-scale power outage event.

The commission said that its involvement in the "EARTH EX 2017" exercise was part of a continuing collaboration of public and private sector leaders to strengthen the state's ability to prepare for and respond to so-called "Black Sky" events — defined as extraordinary, wide-reaching events capable of causing power outages that last significantly longer than typical weather- or operational-related outages.

The commission listed as examples of such events cyber-attacks on the electric grid, physical attacks, and of course severe weather (like hurricanes). The drill was developed by the Electric Infrastructure Security Council and represented the first phase of a nearly year-long series of international exercises intended to develop, test, and enhance planning and preparation for Black Sky events.

The commission noted that it had participated in one of the country's first Black Sky exercises back in June of 2016.