August 14, 2009- On the six-year anniversary of the 2003 blackout, the Logistics, Administration/Finance and MIS units of the New York City Office of Emergency Management conducted an exercise to test the agency’s ability to validate, prioritize, and deliver resources in the event of a citywide power outage. The team used its new E-Team Resource Request Form system to add speed and transparency to the process. The purpose of the exercise was to evaluate the Logistics Center’s Resource Request process and to highlight the best practices and lessons learned during the exercise.

A team of seven players and three evaluators from the Logistics, Administration & Finance, and MIS units processed requests in the logistics center while ten exercise controllers from the Training and Exercises, Urban Seach & Rescue, and Planning units played the roles of various city agencies and organizations in distress in the simulation cell. At the end of the three hour exercise, evaluators met to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the system and made suggestions for a written after action report. The report will be used to determine what changes should be made to the resource request process and to conduct future exercises.

The scenario: The City is 24 hours into a citywide power outage. There was a failure within the Power Transmission Grid that feeds into New York City and surrounding areas. On top of the power outage, the forecasted temperature for the day is 90 degrees Fahrenheit. The Logistics Center at OEM has been activated, and requests have already been approved and delivered to City agencies as more requests come in. OEM is currently on back-up generator power but has not experienced power issues.

All communications during the exercise were conducted in the simulation cell to prevent interference with real-world communications.	The exercise controllers acted as city agencies and organizations placing resource request calls to the simulation cell.
The exercise took place during different stages of the request process, with some resources already approved and delivered while new requests were coming in.	The functional exercise was intended to stress the participants without actually using resources in the field.
Data collected by controllers, evaluators, and players was used to identify the strengths of the E-Team system and the areas where the system needed improvement.	Players watched the simulation cell from a live camera feed to see if they needed more exercise injects.