Facility Reliability, Resiliency, & Contingency Planning

Both the winter 2023 EUG and WUG meetings had recent and specific case studies on weather-related impacts to facilities and business operations. In this industry, we all have a range of preparation such as facility power redundancy, resilience planning, storm plans, emergency response plans, business continuity plans, etc.

Please take a few minutes to share your practices, new ideas and any lessons learned on how to provide more resilient, reliable, facilities and maintain operations during outages. (As usual, you will get a copy of the results and go to this month's shared practice meeting registration page upon completion)

We understand that there is overlap in content and terminology used for Reliability, Resiliency, & Contingency Planning, and a continuum from normal operation/security to facility impairment but we are not going to try to resolve that here. Provide the best answers you can for the "working definitions" provided for each of these as an exercise to gain insight from how we are all approaching these issues.

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1. Facility Resiliency show/hide

Resliency is the ability of your facility to accommodate changes over time and continue to function [withstand externally driven disruption].
Which of your facilities have an explicit criticality rating?

Do you assess the potential vulnerability of your facilities to a list of appropriate acute/SHORT-TERM risks? (hurricanes, tornados, wildfire, ice storms, accidents, power outages, malicious attacks physical/cyber)

Do you assess the potential vulnerability of your facilities to a list of appropriate chronic/LONG-TERM risks? (earthquakes, rising sea level, drought, extreme temperatures, social unrest, labor shortage, pandemic)

Do you have defined planning/design criteria for buildings and sites to mitigate potential resiliency issues beyond compliance with building codes and standard design practices?

Any Comments on Resiliency

4. Some information about you show/hide

Your survey results are confidential and contact information is optional. However, if you wish to receive the results or are willing to answer questions from others, please provide your email.

Your Organization (just for our use to track responses)

Your Name (optional - only if you want us to contact you)

Your Email (optional - only used to send the results)

N+ electrical systems
Backup power supply
N+ HVAC systems
N+ water systems
Backup water supply
N+ security systems
N+ communications systems
Backup communication system
Critical spares on site
24/7 maintenance staffing coverage
Enhanced maintenance levels (more frequent PMs/condition assessments)
More frequent equipment replacement/upgrade
Other (describe in comments)

Defined system impairment measures (backup system monitoring, fire watch, etc.)
Facility evacuation
Facility sheltering/shelter-in-place
Facility lockdown
Partial facility shut-down
Relocation of operations/designated backup sites
Other (describe in comments)

Emergency/medical supplies (> normal)
Emergency food/water supplies
Storm response kits
PPE (> normal)
Water barriers/removal equipment
Portable fans, heaters, cooling equipment
Tarps/plastic sheeting/plywood
Prearranged team assignments and contacts for restoration
Emergency procurement processes
Other (describe in comments)