Prepared for the worst, electrical grid workers isolate as coronavirus spreads
[link:https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/prepared-worst-electrical-grid-workers-isolate-coronavirus-spreads-n1173171|
“We’ve had it in our plans as a hypothetical drill that we walk through every year to practice,” said Rich Dewey, the president of the New York Independent Systems Operator, which oversees the state’s energy grid and deployed those sequestered workers. “But we’ve never actually had to put it into practice.”
While Americans' daily lives have been disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, those who maintain the U.S. electrical grid are enacting emergency measures to minimize the chance that Americans’ electrical service will be interrupted.
The grid is distributed across the country, with 16 “reliability coordinators,” like New York’s systems operator, who are the main oversight organizations with the ultimate authority to make sure the lights stay on. (The organizations don’t generate the power, but they coordinate its distribution.)
Jim Robb, president of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, a nonprofit regulator that oversees the risks and reliability of the grid, said the coronavirus pandemic has pushed them into action.
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