I understand from our State Planner, Kerry Kimble, that the Colorado Governor's Energy Office received an award of $658,302 dollars through a formula grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. This grant is specifically provided to the State Energy Office to increase the state capability for emergency response and to update the state emergency plan. The GEO has addressed these challenges in their Colorado Smart Grid Challenges and Opportunities Report. (NOTE: you can also see March 2010 solicitation for services reference on the Governor's Energy Office site at http://rechargecolorado.com/index.php/resources_overview/funding_opportunities/#section18).
Kerry Kimble is running lead on this effort for the Division. According to Kerry, GEO intends to build a new intra-state framework for handling energy emergencies such as cyber attacks, major system outages, and threats to critical energy infrastructure statewide. The objectives of this initiative are to strengthen and expand state and local government energy assurance planning and resiliency response capability.
The Colorado Energy Assurance Emergency Plan will focus on building regional energy assurance capability to allow the State of Colorado to coordinate and communicate statewide and with critical energy Infrastructure partners on the following issues: (a) energy security; (b) grid reliability; (c) emergency response; and (d) large scale disruptions.
GEO intends to build a new intra-state framework for energy emergency planning. The CEAEP project will be managed by CISPR and divided into four major stages: Stage 1: Identify key stakeholders and develop a steering committee for the CEAEP. The initial activity under this grant will be to establish a steering committee for the project plan executed by the vendor. Stage 2: Develop Project Management and Workforce Development plans. The GEO has detailed a project plan which outlines the funding to the Project Manager. The workforce development plan will identify areas within the state which may benefit from hiring, retaining, or training personnel in areas of technical expertise such as smart grid technology, and grid integration of renewable energy. Stage 3: Develop draft Colorado Energy Assurance and Security Plan. The Project Manager and GEO will hold a series of workshops with key stakeholders in the state government, utilities and energy production industry to develop a comprehensive energy assurance plan for the State of Colorado. The Project Manager and GEO will hold a series of workshops with key stakeholders in the state government, utilities and energy production industry to develop a comprehensive energy assurance plan for the State of Colorado. Stage 4: Execute two Energy Assurance Emergency Exercises. The fourth stage of this project will involve testing the effectiveness of the policies, procedures, and operational framework outlined in the draft Colorado Energy Assurance Plan.
