The Multi-State Fleet Response Working Group

Expediting the movement of private sector resources on a multi-state level in support of response efforts to
large scale disasters for rapid restoration of critical infrastructure, supply chains, and communities.

What is the Multi-State Fleet Response Working Group?

Overview:

Regional Mutual Assistance Groups (RMAGs) are networks of Investor Owned Utilities (IOUs) that have agreements to provide voluntary mutual aid during emergencies. When activated, utility crews and vehicles move across state lines to assist affected utilities. These crews may require legal documentation for law enforcement (if needed), such as emergency declarations or waivers, to operate outside their usual operating areas as they navigate through other states (e.g. the pass through states).  Additionally, delays can occur at state weight stations, tool stations, construction zones, major events, and road closures, further hindering the response and restoration efforts.

The Multi-state Fleet Response Working Group (FRWG) (www.fleetresponse.org) was established in early 2013, following the devastation of SuperStorm Sandy, by state emergency management and utilities commission representatives from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and various industry sector representatives including electric, communications, fuel, retail, transportation, healthcare, and finance. Initially focused on the Eastern U.S., the FRWG has since expanded across the United States, developing a range of solutions and processes aimed at reducing mutual assistance delays for utilities in both the U.S. and Canada.

The FRWG has spawned several other nationally recognized working groups that collaborate and share information during disasters:

1. State Private Sector Liaison Working Group: This group comprises over 40 state emergency managers and liaisons, who work together to streamline communication and coordination between the private sector and state/local  emergency operations.
2. Sensitive Information Sharing Environment (SISE): Involving more than 80 organizations and trade groups from industry and government, SISE facilitates operational collaboration and the secure exchange of sensitive information to support disaster response and recovery efforts.

Since 2012, these groups have been conducting weekly, monthly, and quarterly meetings to address and solve operational problems. Their focus areas include electric sector mutual assistance and fleet movement, operational information sharing, cross-sector exercises, implementation of FEMA grants, planning, training, cybersecurity, and other emerging issues. Through these regular meetings, stakeholders develop and refine use cases that support more efficient and effective disaster response solutions.

The FRWG coordinates closely with key federal agencies such as FEMA, DHS CISA, US DOT, DOE, and trade groups like EEI, APPA, NRECA  in the electric sector along with other sector trade groups from water, communications, fuel, natural gas, rail, trucking, and healthcare. This national collaboration ensures that the group’s initiatives are aligned with national standards and policies, and it enhances the overall effectiveness of their efforts.

Operating in a FOIA-protected environment, this platform allows for the sharing of operational information that is critical to disaster response. By facilitating this secure exchange of information, the FRWG helps to expedite power and infrastructure restoration efforts, ultimately making disaster response faster and more efficient.

Through their ongoing efforts and collaboration, the FRWG and its associated working groups have significantly improved the coordination and effectiveness of mutual assistance in the face of disasters, benefiting communities across the U.S. and Canada.

What Does the Working Group Do?

The FRWG’s vision is to produce expedited, safe and effective restoration of critical infrastructure to support community and business resilience.

The mission of the FRWG is to identify and attract people, processes, and technologies that can support the expediting of private sector fleet and resource movement across multiple state lines in response to a disaster.

How Does It Do It?

The FRWG fosters relationships between industry and government by delivering products and services and facilitating planning, exercises and program that promote the expediting or power restoration. The working group accomplishes this through volunteers who participate in various efforts and sub-committees that produce low or no cost solutions , training, exercises, and speaking at regional national conferences and meetings for the importance of this working group, its members, and its results.

The FRWG uses a proven collaboration “system” developed by the All Hazards Consortium to support joint public/private “integrated” planning, education and training, joint information sharing, and annual exercises to improve power restoration efforts and supply chain resiliency.

What is the Role for the FRWG?

The role of the FRWG is to support or lead ongoing planning or problem solving meetings to address operational issues identified by its stakeholders or other AHC working groups and partners.

During "blue-sky days", the FRWG and its sub-committees and working groups conduct weekly, monthly, and period planning and exercise activities, and solve operational problems.

During “dark-sky” days", the FRWG becomes operational and activates in information sharing capabilities to alert and coordinate information flow between multiple states and industry to support electric sector mutual assistance fleet movements for power restoration, cross-sector situational awareness, aggregation and distribution of documents, and connect people to resources and other people to solve operational problems.  

Who Runs the FRWG?

The FRWG is operated under the All Hazards Consortium (AHC, a 501c3) and the AHC’s FOIA protected legal planning framework. Governance is provided via an approved charter which defines the roles of the chair, co-chair, an executive steering committee, and group membership, roles, support, etc...

Who can Participate?

The FRWG membership consists of volunteer private sector representatives from any interested utilities or other organizations (e.g., companies, trade associations, councils, etc...) as well as any other critical sectors including fuel/oil/gas, transportation, telecommunications, food, water, medical, retail, finance, commercial facilities, and information technology. Government representatives can join as an advisor and participate in all of the working group’s activities. 

What has been Accomplished?

This group has produced dozens of operational solutions which its members utilize to expedite information sharing between industry and coordination with state and local government during regional national disasters to expedite power and infrastructure restoration.

This group serves a national stakeholder based and has given birth to multiple working groups, initiatives, events and solutions in the following areas:

• Planning and Problem Solving Work Groups
  • The Sensitive Information Sharing Environment (SISE) Working Group
  • The State Private Sector Liaison Working Group
  • The SISE-net Working Group
  • The SISE-net Cross-Sector Exercise Working Group
  • The Operational Training Working Group
  • The SISE Strategic Advisory Committee
  • Multiple Use Case Committees
  • The ENDEAVOR Model Working Groups for industry led working groups with state emergency managers: https://www.ahcusa.org/endeavor-model.html

• Events
  • The 2021, 2022, 2023 Annual National Resilience Exchange Summit Conference held in January for support of resilience efforts across the US: https://pro.ahcusa.org/past-events
    
  • The STORM/Crisis Preparedness Workshop to train the next generation of storm professionals.
  • The Business Resiliency Virtual Discussion Series that focused on a wide variety of topics of interest including cyber and physical security, technology, pandemic response, emerging threats, and more: https://pro.ahcusa.org/past-events
• Process Improvements
  • The SISE Integrated Planning Framework
  • The Fleet Movement Coordination with States process to support mutual assistance movements.
  • The US/Canadian Border Crossing Process to expedite movement across the border for power restorations in Northeast US
  • National Fleet Movement Coordination for historic Puerto Rico Power Restoration following Hurricane Maria in 2017
  • Nationwide collaboration and training initiative with 22 state emergency management agencies and operational coordination with industry during crises or disasters.
• Exercises
  • The 2021, 2022, & 2023 Annual Cross-Sector Virtual TTX for Hurricane Season Preparation: https://www.ahcusa.org/cross-sector-exercises.html
• Training
  • The STORM School Training and Advisory Services: https://www.ahcusa.org/storm-school.html
• Technologies
  • The STORM Central website to aggregates government disaster documents and updates during disasters: https://www.ahcusa.org/storm-central.html
  • The Fleet Movement App that provides LIVE data feeds for transportation planning during disaster including LIVE road closures, facility status, declarations/waivers, locations for lodging, fuel, hospitals and much more. Requires a license and  AHC membership to access.
  • The Commercial Route Assistance (CRA) App that expedited truck movements during state COVID restrictions and closures (currently paused): https://cra.inl.gov/
  • The National Vetted PPE Exchange, a digital high-speed sourcing model that connected vetted PPE buyers/suppliers in near real-time to find PPE inventories during local shortages (active): www.ppenearme.org
  • The SISE-net Operational Information Sharing Hub, to sync operational situational awareness between industry and government during certain disasters: https://www.ahcusa.org/operational-information-hub.html
  • The National Vetted PPE Exchange to locate vetted PPE suppliers during the 2020 COVID pandemic: https://www.ppenearme.org
• Standards
  • The Operational Readiness Level (ORL) Data Confidence Standard to rank the confidence factor for data used by decision makers: https://www.ahcusa.org/orl-data-standard.htm
• Federal Grants / Projects
  • DHS CISA rapid development grant to create the CRA (Commercial Route Assistance) App in 2020 during COVID-19 with Idaho National Labs to assist commercial vehicles moving during state restrictions and closures.
  • The Energy Storage Initiative to support the FEMA BRIC (Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities) grant: https://www.ahcusa.org/energy-storage-initiative.html
• Initiatives
  • The SISE-net Initiative to connect industry and state government operations centers during disasters to synch situational awareness on a variety of uses cases in response situational awareness, damage assessments, recovery, etc... https://www.ahcusa.org/sisenet.html
  • The Infrastructure Mitigation Initiative (2023) to support state hazards mitigation efforts through integrated infrastructure planning, training and coordinated grant projects.
  • MS TEAMS Integration Initiative designed to address the private sector’s desire to reduce emails and portals during disasters and simplify user access to the SISE by leveraging MS TEAM and SISE credentials. https://www.ahcusa.org/ms-teams-integration.html
  • The STORM School initiative that leverages the real-world experience and wisdom of the Fleet Response Working Group’s operational stakeholders and partners in the private sector and government who have collectively responded to thousands of storms and disasters over the past 30+years to training and advise the next generation of storm and crisis response professionals. https://www.ahcusa.org/storm-school.html
  • The Cross-Sector Exercises Initiative designed to increase disaster communications and coordination between multiple industry sectors and state operations centers on six topics areas: https://www.ahcusa.org/cross-sector-exercises.html
  • Resilience Rising Initiative designed to encourage women to not only enter into and grow within the crisis and consequence management field but to strive for leadership roles. https://pro.ahcusa.org/resilience-rising
  • The ENDEAVOR Model Initiative leverages the Fleet Response Working Groups charter and legal framework to provide a legally structured way for state and local emergency managers in a specific state to work with the private sector business and infrastructure owners on planning, response, recovery and mitigation activities following any type of disaster or disruption. https://www.ahcusa.org/endeavor-model.html
  • The SISE-net Information Hub Initiative was designed to "sync" operational situational awareness information between industry and state government people and systems on specific topics to streamline operational coordination and communication during disasters to reduce delays and save lives. https://www.ahcusa.org/sise-net-information-hub.html

Who Are the Partners & Supporters?

These FRWG's partnerships have formed for various reasons as outlined below.

Operational Coordination Partnerships:

These partnerships typically form from a mutual desire to coordinate
information and operations before, during, and after any type of disaster.

• Edison Electric Institute (EEI)
• Energy Marketers of America (EMA)
• Food Industry Association (FMI)
• Association of American Railroads (AAR)
• American Public Power Association (APPA)
• National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA)
• American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN)
• Healthcare Ready
• National Governors Association (NGA)
• Council of State Governments CSG)
• American Trucking Association (ATA)
• Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA)
• American Water Works Association (AWWA)
• Southeast Electric Exchange (SEE)
• Participating companies from various sectors: Dominion Energy, Duke Energy, Entergy, American Electric Power, Southern Company, ComEd, , First Energy, Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corporation, Florida Power and Light (FPL), Louisville Gas & Electric, Westar Energy, ONCOR Energy, CenterPoint Energy, National Grid, PSEG – Long Island, ConEdison, Eversource Energy, PEPCO, PECO Energy, Exelon, PPL Electric, Wakefern Foods, Verizon, Asplundh, ComEd, Pacific Gas & Electric, Northern Grid, ARCOS, C&S Wholesale Grocers, Southern Cal-Edison, ARCOS, AES, Walmart, Associated Grocers, PUBLIX, Perdue, AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, AmerisourceBergen, Home Depot, FEDEX, Waffle House, South Florida Water Management District, First Energy, Wells Fargo, and more.

Research and Development Partnerships:

These partnerships form to share information and understand
requirements to support the development of new solutions, policies,
processes, that support specific use cases within the AHC work groups:

• Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)
• American Trucking Research Institute (ATRI)
• Idaho National Lab (INL)
• Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab (JHU-APL)
• Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL)
• Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) Federation
• National Science Foundation (NSF)
• National Institute for Hometown Security (NIHS)

Information Sharing Partnerships:
These partnerships form to share information to enhance situational
awareness and decision-making during a disaster:

• National Council of ISACS
• Multi-State ISAC
• State Fusion Centers
• State Emergency Operations Centers
• Private Sector Liaisons
• National Insurance Crime Bureau
• Federal Agencies & Councils: DHS CISA, FEMA US/DOT Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, DHS TSA (Roadway, Air, and Port), NOAA, NASA, USGS, CDC, US DOE, US HHS,
White House Office of Science Technology and Policy
• State, Local, Tribal & Territorial Government Coordinating Council (SLTTGCC)
• National Governor’s Association
• Regional Collaborative Coordinating Council (RC3)

Solution Development Partnerships:
These partnerships form to develop specific processes or solutions.

• Bent Ear Solutions
• Training Outreach
• ESRI
• Storm Center Communications
• Hughes Network Systems


Critical Infrastructure Partnerships:
These partnerships form because they have a common interest in critical
infrastructure resilience:

• Regional Collaborative Coordinating Council
• California Resilience Alliance (CRA)
• Pacific Northwest Economic Region (PNWER)
• InfraGard
• Critical Infrastructure Partnership Advisory Council
• State, Local, Tribal, Territorial Government Coordinating Council
• Cross-Sector Coordinating Council
• Nation Council of ISACs

How to Join?

To join the Fleet Response Working Group, simply become a member of the All Hazards Consortium.

Visit the Join Us section of this website.