Recovery/Puerto Rico (2020 Transition)
| Book 2 - Issue Papers
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| Entire 2020 DOE Transition book As of October 2020 |
The Department of Energy (DOE)’s enhanced recovery function in Puerto Rico is improving infrastructure resilience through proactive coordination and preparedness to bring prosperity back to the islands and secure critical systems against future disaster damage.
Summary
DOE’s Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response’s (CESER) Division of Infrastructure Security and Emergency Response (ISER) identified an opportunity for an enhanced recovery support capability, particularly related to remote territories and islands, in the 2017 Hurricane Season FEMA After-Action Review. The After-Action Review specifically identifies the value of proactive coordination in the recovery phase as well as pre-recovery activities for improving national infrastructure resilience, and as a result, the Department’s effectiveness in disaster response.
Enhanced DOE pre- and post-disaster recovery support capabilities are being brought to fruition through designating an Energy Systems Recovery Coordinator and dedicating technical assistance (TA) and research and development (R&D) programmatic resources. The Energy Systems Recovery Coordinator, located in the Office of Electricity (OE), serves as the responsible party and has a leadership role for coordinating all Departmental recovery activities and for representing DOE in interagency coordination frameworks. The Coordinator works collaboratively with program directors across the Department to identify and leverage existing work for recovery support, while establishing accountable means to reflect lessons learned back to those program managers. The Coordinator also ensures all senior leadership remain apprised of recovery-related work. Additionally, the Coordinator oversees recovery-related DOE and National Lab Mission Assignments from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), while also developing Department-wide financial recovery-related resource requests for disaster-specific supplemental appropriations.
Recognizing the state of urgency to address these critical challenges, a few key opportunities and anticipated outcomes stand out as DOE, under OE’s leadership, enhances its recovery support capabilities:
Comprehensive Pre- and Post-Disaster Preparedness Support – Resilience in Recovery Phase
Coordinating pre- and post-disaster preparedness activities offers a unique opportunity to reduce current and future risk and contribute to a more resilient and secure Nation. Proactive and coordinated preparedness activities, such as assessing vulnerabilities in electrical infrastructure, identify and mitigate risks that might endanger or pose additional recovery challenges prior to the urgency and confusion that typically follows a disaster response . Coordinating pre-disaster preparedness work ensures that risk mitigation actions are taken during the recovery process, improving the resilience of infrastructure to future disasters and lowering the Federal restoration and recovery cost burden.
Existing DOE Programs Serve as Springboard for Enhanced Recovery Support Capabilities
Expanded, coordinated, and enhanced recovery support capabilities build on ready-made tools, techniques, and relationships developed across the DOE applied program offices [OE, CESER, Fossil Energy (FE), Nuclear Energy (NE), and Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)], including the State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial (SLTT) portfolio of preparedness support supported by ISER. These capabilities also draw on technical reports, training materials, playbooks, and relationships developed as a part of the Energy Transitions Initiative (ETI) and Grid Modernization Initiative (GMI) and serves as a springboard for DOE’s disaster recovery support for localities and Federal partners. Additionally, an enhanced recovery support capability, supplemented by the deployment of advanced tools, analytic frameworks, and technologies in affected areas, provides a platform for collaborative engagement with partners across DOE’s research and development offices to incorporate lessons learned into program planning, including ETI and GMI projects.
An Enhanced Recovery Support Capability – Clarifying DOE’s Roles and Responsibilities for Interagency Coordination
The Energy Sector Recovery Support Function (RSF) role is the primary means for DOE to coordinate with interagency partners on matters of recovery support. Clarifying roles, distinguishing duties, and dedicating personnel to fulfill the responsibilities of the RSF provides consistency in inter- and intra-agency communications, allows for the accumulation of field experience; the development of long-term relationships with local and Federal partners; and an enhanced information conduit to the programmatic offices.
Status
The Department is currently engaged with recovery efforts in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands (USVI) with recovery support to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) scheduled to commence in early FY2021.
In April 2020, DOE finalized an Interagency Reimbursable Work Agreement (IRWA) with FEMA to support DOE’s role in the resilient recovery efforts from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. The support provided will augment planning and operational activities as well as capacity building for public entities in Puerto Rico—e.g. Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), Energy Office, Vivienda, and Puerto Rico Energy Bureau (PREB)—to support the significant federal investments being made by FEMA and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as part of the recovery of the Commonwealth. Additionally, DOE will provide subject matter expertise and assistance directly to FEMA and HUD as they implement public assistance and Community Development Block Grant–Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funding.
To further improve coordination of energy sector recovery efforts in Puerto Rico, DOE co-leads an Energy Technical Coordination Team (TCT). The goal of the TCT is to collectively pursue the best recovery solutions and match to those solutions the resources of the Federal government, nongovernmental organizations, and private sector in a unified and collaborative manner.
Supported via the IRWA with FEMA, recovery efforts in the U.S. Virgin Islands are also ongoing since 2018 . DOE and its national labs have been providing staff time, subject matter expertise, and technical assistance to interagency partners, the Territory, and the utility, the USVI Water and Power Authority. DOE is also working with FEMA to establish a USVI Energy TCT using a similar approach as to the one developed in Puerto Rico.
An IRWA has been signed for the CNMI, and work for this recovery effort will commence in 2021.
DOE Leadership and Coordination
While DOE—under its delegated authorities and responsibilities under Presidential Policy Directive 8: National Preparedness—has a long history of supporting communities both before and in the wake of disasters, the 2017 hurricane season and the devastation experienced in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands revealed the need for a more purposeful and coordinated approach to pre- and post-disaster recovery support across the Department. OE has therefore become a leader in coordinating DOE’s intra- and interagency efforts.
The National Response Framework designates DOE as the Emergency Support Function-12 (ESF-12), the primary coordinator of Federal energy system restoration. The role ISER plays in supporting Federal disaster response through ESF-12 is regularly lauded by industry, Federal partners, and local constituents in affected areas. Staff from DOE’s Power Marketing Administrations (PMA) make up a significant portion of the all-volunteer ESF-12 cadre. The PMAs have a long history of responding to some of the most severe hurricanes to make landfall in the continental United States and the U.S. Territories, including the devastating 2017 Atlantic season that brought Hurricanes Irma and Maria to the shores of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and several states in the southeast U.S.
The Energy Sector RSF role is the primary means for DOE to coordinate with interagency partners on matters of recovery support. OE, through the Energy Systems Recovery Coordinator, provides leadership for the RSF Leadership Group (RSFLG) Energy Sub-Group for PR and USVI recovery and ensures coordination across all responsible parties. Clarifying roles, distinguishing duties, and dedicating personnel to fulfill the responsibilities of the RSF provides consistency in inter- and intra-agency communications; allows for the accumulation of field experience; continues the development of long-term relationships with local and Federal partners; and enhances information conduits to the other DOE program offices.
OE is leveraging the interagency’s coordinating frameworks that deploy resources cost-effectively and equitably in support of disaster recovery. FEMA Mission Assignments are funded requests to partner agencies for specific support to FEMA or to the communities it serves . Memorandums of Understanding and IRWAs are other common coordination mechanisms, most recently used to facilitate DOE’s recovery support in the U.S. Virgin Islands. An enhanced recovery support capability will provide a structured approach for tapping into and leveraging these coordination frameworks to execute DOE’s mission.
Outside of the formal Energy RSF format, DOE-OE is actively engaged with the Department of Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs in coordinating support for the territories and insular areas on both pre- and post-recovery efforts. This longstanding Federal relationship, coupled with the existing relationships with stakeholders in these vulnerable communities has increased the ability to “hit the ground running” when assembling the resources needed to support recovery efforts.