Federal facility energy managers oversee infrastructure where reliable electricity is essential but not guaranteed. Power outages can occur for many overlapping reasons—such as extreme weather, cyber threats, utility performance, or broader grid vulnerabilities. These disruptions vary widely by location, both in how often they happen and how severely they affect operations. Improving energy resilience at critical facilities can help ensure continued operations during grid disruptions, reduce the impacts of power outages, and strengthen facility preparedness against future threats. This training webinar will guide federal facility energy managers through key concepts to better understand and plan for power outages at their facilities. It introduces the principles of grid reliability and resilience, explains how to assess outage risks using local and historical data, and provides guidance on evaluating the strengths and limitations of their utility provider. Participants will also learn how to engage utilities with targeted questions about grid configuration, performance, and restoration, and how to use data sources and tools to support informed, location-specific resilience planning and investment decisions.
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this course, attendees will be able to:
- Define the concepts of reliability and resilience in the context of electric power systems
- Identify and list outage hazards and risks specific to their facilities and distinguish which risks can be measured
- Evaluate the capabilities and limitations of their utility provider based on the maturity of their utility’s management systems
- Develop targeted questions to ask utilities about grid configuration, performance, restoration, and resilience planning - Locate and apply data sources and tools to support localized power outage preparedness and planning
