| Power generation, fuel supply, transmission, and utility sectors are explicitly exempt from the workforce mandates that are being implemented in response to COVID-19 (coronavirus). Since Member Alert #15-2020 went out yesterday morning, which provided information on the power sector impacts of government action in response to COVID-19, Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Executive Order (“EO”) No. 202.6 mandating that 50% of the workforce of all businesses work from home has been expanded to 75% of the workforce under EO No. 202.7. Importantly, essential exempted industries continue to include the utility and power generation sectors. Guidance and further information on these restrictions can be found from the New York State Department of Health and Empire State Development Corporation. Power generation, fuel supply, and transmission are explicitly included as essential industries in the latter document.
As IPPNY noted in Member Alert #15-2020, there are currently no “shelter in place” mandates effective in New York as there are in parts of California. However, it is recommended that companies be prepared by identifying essential employees and providing them with accurate company identification and a letter from their corporate office identifying them as an essential/critical employee. We are passing along a guidance memo from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency (“CISA”) to help companies identify essential critical infrastructure employees. Page 7 of the CISA guidance memo is specific to the energy sector. Electric industry essential critical infrastructure employees include, but are by no means limited to:
- Workers who maintain, ensure, or restore the generation, transmission, and distribution of electric power, including call centers, utility workers, reliability engineers and fleet maintenance technician
- Workers needed for safe and secure operations at nuclear generation
- Workers at generation, transmission, and electric blackstart facilities
- Workers at Reliability Coordinator, Balancing Authorities, and primary and backup Control Centers, including, but not limited to, independent system operators, regional transmission organizations, and balancing authorities
- Mutual assistance personnel
- IT and OT technology staff for: Energy Management Systems (“EMS”) and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (“SCADA”) systems, and utility data centers; cybersecurity engineers; and cybersecurity risk management
- Vegetation management crews and traffic workers
- Environmental remediation/monitoring technicians
- Instrumentation, protection, and control technicians
IPPNY is in continued communication with its regional partners on these issues, in particular the Electric Power Supply Association (“EPSA”). EPSA is participating in regular COVID-19-related meetings of the Electricity Subsector Coordinating Council, which is a CEO-led organization that acts as the principal liaison between the Federal Government and the electric power industry. The Council’s mission is coordinating efforts to prepare for, and respond to, national-level disasters or threats to critical infrastructure. IPPNY will continue to update Members as appropriate. |
