June 4, 2025 • 46 mins
Host Erik Bjornstad outlines seven critical recommendations for hurricane season preparation, focusing on emergency backup fuel systems.
Key areas include testing fuel quality every 3-6 months, conducting full generator load tests, securing adequate fuel inventory (96 hours for healthcare facilities), hardening infrastructure against storm damage, coordinating vendor deliveries through priority systems like DIRS and TSP for telecom, training staff through tabletop drills, and maintaining comprehensive documentation for compliance.
The episode targets healthcare and telecom sectors specifically, emphasizing that preparation must happen now during the calm period before hurricane season intensifies, using real-world examples like Hurricane Maria's impact on Puerto Rico's telecommunications infrastructure.
What You'll Learn:
- Emergency Fuel System Fundamentals - How to establish proper fuel quality testing protocols and understand the critical importance of testing emergency backup diesel fuel every 3-6 months for water contamination, microbial growth, and fuel degradation.
- Generator Load Testing Best Practices - The difference between simple startup checks and comprehensive full-load testing, including healthcare industry requirements for monthly 30% load tests and annual 4-hour full load tests.
- Industry-Specific Compliance Requirements - Healthcare facilities' obligations under NFPA 99 and NFPA 110 standards, including the mandatory 96-hour fuel supply requirement and CMS documentation standards for emergency preparedness.
- Telecom Infrastructure Protection Strategies - How to implement proper testing for battery backup depletion scenarios and ensure seamless switchover from UPS to generator systems without service interruption.
- Priority Registration Systems for Emergency Response - The critical importance of DIRS and TSP registration for telecom operators and how these systems provide government-backed priority for fuel deliveries and infrastructure repair during disasters.
- Infrastructure Security and Theft Prevention - Post-storm security considerations and the reality of equipment theft from telecom sites, with over 4,000 reported incidents in just three months of 2024.
Effective Emergency Planning Through Tabletop Drills - How to design and conduct scenario-based training exercises that expose hidden vulnerabilities in emergency response plans before real disasters strike.
- Comprehensive Documentation Strategies - Essential record-keeping requirements for both healthcare and telecom sectors, including automated monitoring systems and NOC-level reporting tools for regulatory compliance and operational optimization.
Ideas Worth Sharing:
Here are three notable quotes from the podcast episode:
- "You have got time to prepare, but the time to prepare is right now, you do not want to let that get away from you as much as the temptation might be for that to happen."
-
"This kind of thing or these kinds of things like whether your entire power redundancy chain works as opposed to just the generator, that can really only be confirmed under this kind of full load test scenario, and this is the time for you to make it happen. This is the calm before the upcoming storms."
- "Tabletop drill is a really useful tool that exposes the hidden points, the hidden choke points where a hurricane can take your system offline and then gives you a chance to fix them ahead of time when it still costs nothing but time."
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the Fuel Pulse ShowPodcast, where we talk about all
things fuel for all kinds of people.
Once again, I'm your host, EricBjornstad, and I'll be your guide
through the ever-Changing World of Fuel.
Here at the podcast, we talk aboutall of the factors and considerations
that come into play when you'retalking about all the different
(00:21):
kinds of fuel that we have to use.
Not only in our professional lives, likeon the job, but also the stuff that we use
personally as well as all of the enginesand equipment and the things that we use.
That use that fuel both professionallyon the job, but then also things we
use at home to make our lives easier.
(00:41):
And so that means the Fuel PulseShow podcast is really for everybody.
So with that in mind, whatare we going to talk about on
today's episode of the podcast?
This is a piggyback.
Off of last episode that we did wherewe were talking about the predictions
for the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season.
(01:04):
Now, if you remember.
We said that the predictionsthus far are that it's going to
be a relatively normal season.
I think they said 15 named storms,about seven to eight hurricanes, three
major hurricanes was the consensusand all of those numbers slot into
what a typical hurricane season.
(01:26):
Has been over the last 30 years or sonow, there was a little bit of difference
of opinion between some of the groupsin what they call the ACE index.
ACE Index is a mathematical.
Compilation that they put togetherthat expresses numerically how
powerful all the sum total, allthe storms were in a given season.
(01:47):
And there was a little bit of diof disagreement between the groups
that offered these predictions.
Colorado State University, Ibelieve, thinks were gonna have
an above average, they said.
ACE Index of 155, which isabout 25% higher than normal.
But other groups like Tropical StormRisk Group predict a lot closer to
(02:09):
an average ACE index of about 110.
And the biggest reason for that differencewe found out was a difference in how they
view the sea temperatures are gonna be.
Colorado State seems to thinkthat we're gonna have warmer than
average Atlanta hurricane season.
Sea surface temperatures ratherwhereas tropical storm risk and
(02:30):
Arizona State University thinkthey're gonna be closer to normal.
And really, I think that's gonna be thebig determinant because warm water is
really the biggest primary driver forwhether you're gonna have unusually high
number of storms and more powerful storms.
How warm is that water?
(02:50):
That is what we talked about last time.
And then what we said is for thisepisode now we're gonna talk about,
not about, how bad is it gonnabe, but what does that tell us?
What do these predictions forthe hurricane season tell us?
About what we should be doing to preparefor the Atlantic hurricane season.
(03:13):
Even if a storm is supposed tobe quiet in aggregate, right?
It just takes one storm hitting the rightplace at the right time in order to make
the whole thing be a really bad event.
Now, hurricane season, typicallywe said, remember we said.
That it runs from June the firstthrough the end of November.
(03:34):
Typically the beginning part ofhurricane season's usually quiet.
It's really unusual to get, let'ssay, a major hurricane at the
beginning of hurricane season.
That's what we had lastyear with Hurricane Barrel.
It's really the first time in recentmemory that had ever happened, the
early to mid-summer is, even thoughthat's hurricane season, it's typically
(03:56):
still quiet so that, so if you arein a region of the country like
we are here in Florida, if you'rein a region of the country that
geographically would have reason tobe concerned with hurricane activity.
You have got time to prepare, butthe time to prepare is right now,
(04:16):
you do not want to let that get awayfrom you as much as the temptation
might be for that to happen.
So what we're gonna ask is thereanything that you need to do to
prepare for hurricane season if youare in an industry or a sector where.
Emergency backup fuel plays animportant role in what you're doing now.
(04:42):
There are general recommendationsfor everybody on what you should
do to prepare for hurricane season.
Then there's also things thatare specific for certain sectors.
That rely on emergency backupfuel, like healthcare environments.
Telecom installations are tworeally good examples of this.
Healthcare environments and telecom.
They have overlapping priorities,but there's, they also each have
(05:06):
their own unique challenges whenit comes to their emergency fuel
use during hurricane season.
So today we're gonna talk aboutsome recommendations, both general
recommendations for everybody, and thenspecific recommendations for those.
Two sectors.
Okay, so let's start.
(05:26):
First, recommendation, emergency backup.
Fuel quality must bereliable, no exceptions.
That means the recommendation for you is.
Test your emergency backupdiesel fuel for water microbial
contamination and degradation test.
(05:47):
You should be testing them everythree to six months, so when you
would want to do that relative tohurricane season, coming up upon
us really depends on when you last.
Tested your fuel.
If you last tested your fuel, back in2024, if it was before the start of the
(06:07):
year, then you definitely want to do thatnow before hurricane season gets underway.
Now, healthcare and telecomhad some additional wrinkles of
specificity that come into playfor the healthcare industry.
You are wanting to ensure that yourfuel quality complies with NFPA.
(06:29):
One 10 standards.
That's what you have to worry aboutwith the healthcare industry and they,
NFPA one 10 has certain standards,like they have a limit on, let's say
the percentage of water by volume thatyou can have in your storage tank.
That, that's gonna be one of yourguiding sets of requirements is what
an n fpa a one 10 says about your fuel.
(06:51):
And so you're gonna need to stick to that.
Now, for telecom, you've got this wrinklethat your critical sites, like your
cell towers and your switch centers.
Those kind of installations tendto use smaller storage tanks.
Smaller storage tanks are morevulnerable to condensation and
(07:13):
development of microbial growth,which means if you are in the telecom
industry and you are, have any kind ofresponsibility for emergency backup fuel.
The fact that your smaller tanks are more,more vulnerable to those problem causing
things means you are going to want to testmore frequently than three to six months.
(07:35):
Okay?
So that's recommendation number one, testyour fuel now to confirm its quality.
Recommendation number two, afterchecking your fuel quality is
conduct full generated load tests.
That means.
Testing your generators underreal operational load conditions,
not just doing a startup checkand then thinking that you've
(07:58):
done everything that you need to.
Now, real operational loads or fullgenerator load tests are gonna look
a little bit different for differentsectors in the healthcare industry.
They have some requirements already.
CMS.
And joint Commission already requiredoing at least 30 minutes of testing
(08:19):
at least 30% load every single month,plus an additional four hour load test.
Annually.
Now, if you are in the healthcare industryand you ha and any of that intersects
with your professional responsibilities,it's likely that you already know this.
And so it's likely, it's very likely thatyou are already in compliance with this.
(08:43):
And so the only thing that we wouldneed to stress there is again,
if you didn't know already theimportance of documenting everything.
Okay.
What about telecom?
Here you want to simulate full sitefailure including, very importantly,
including battery backup depletion, andit's because you're aiming to confirm
(09:04):
that if that happens to you, if thathappens in your area, you are aiming to
confirm that there will actually be aseamless switchover from UPS to generator.
Without it causing anything, likedropped calls or cutting service.
Now, this kind of testing, this kindof comprehensive load testing can
(09:26):
sometimes get skipped in telecom,but it's still really important to
do because the kind of testing thatwe're talking about here, it's gonna
show you things, it's gonna tell youthings that you may not be able to see
otherwise, and what you're looking for is.
You're gonna be looking for things thatare specifically related to generator
(09:47):
performance, related to fuel reliability,and related to switchover integrity.
Now, most telecom facilities, andagain, if you're in telecom, you
already know this, but we're justsaying it for everyone else's benefit.
Most telecom facilities by facilities,we're talking about switching centers.
We're talking about small cell nodes.
(10:08):
We're talking about data hubs.
Most telecom facilities havethese layers of redundancy when
it comes to maintaining power.
They start with getting theirprimary power from the power grid.
Okay?
If the power grid goes down, theredundancy is it switches to battery back
up, that UPS thing that we referenced.
(10:29):
But if the battery backup fails, thenyou have a diesel backup generator.
That is supposed to switch on,it's supposed to come into play
as the third layer of redundancy.
So the real test of yoursystem reliability or system
resilience, if you will.
It's, it doesn't come from just, startingthat generator up and making sure that
(10:50):
it starts the real test of your system.
Resilience comes from confirming thatyour system is going to automatically
switch over to the generator.
When both the grid power and the batteryfail, you're basically, you're confirming
that your fuel system that generatoruses and the generator relies on, you're
(11:12):
confirming that the fuel system reliablyor will reliably feed the generator
without issues, issues like, a clogin the fuel line or having air in the
fuel lines, or having fuel degradation.
So you're also confirming notonly that, you're also confirming.
That your critical systems aregonna stay online throughout.
(11:34):
An entire failover process, if you will.
Now, how exactly you do all of thisdepends to a certain extent on the
protocols laid out for your system.
So we can't really, sit here and telleverybody in telecom every single
step that's gonna apply to everybody.
It's not really the place for us to layout a comprehensive plan that's gonna
(11:58):
define the steps for everybody in thetelecom industry because everybody's
system is a little bit different.
But from a general standpoint, thekind of load testing that people in
the telecom industry should do inpreparation for hurricane season, it's
gonna involve basic steps up isolatingthe site from grid power number one.
(12:22):
Forcing the site to then drain thebattery system, number two, and then.
Verifying that the diesel generator thatremember that third layer of redundancy,
verifying that the diesel generator isthen gonna kick on within the required
time delay period, which is supposed to bebetween 10 and 30 seconds after the system
(12:44):
detects a low battery voltage situation.
So this kind of testing, it'sverifying that the generator's gonna
carry the full site load without anyvoltage drop, without any brown out.
It's verifying that the generatortransfers load automatically via
the automatic transfer switchas it's supposed to do, and it's
(13:07):
verifying whether it maintainsstable frequency for digital loads.
And then while all this is happening.
You're taking the opportunity toalso check the generator fuel system.
Are there any pressure drops?
Are the system filters functionalor do they exhibit evidence of
clogs or fuel, something thatmight cause fuel starvation?
(13:30):
Is there any smoke, any surge on startup?
Is the fuel consumptionrate under the real load?
Is it close to what it's supposed to be?
This kind of thing orthese kinds of things.
Like whether your entire powerredundancy chain works as opposed to
just the generator, that can reallyonly be confirmed under this kind of
(13:53):
full load test scenario, and this isthe time for you to make it happen.
This is the calm beforethe upcoming storms.
Something that you're gonna wanna do inadvance of hurricane season so that you're
prepared for that worst case scenario.
Basically, the time that youwanna do all of this is right now.
(14:15):
So that's the second thing.
Third thing, you've got a plan tosecure sufficient fuel inventory
to cover possible multi-day outagesduring a hurricane season event Now.
You have a backup system, but you can'trun backup systems without fuel, right?
Seems self-evident.
(14:36):
This is the time to make surethat you've got access to
enough fuel for an emergency.
You are not gonna wanna waittill the hurricane's bearing that
on you to verify make sure thatyou can get fuel if you need it.
Now for general recommendation, you shouldbe able because you know your system best.
You should be able to calculate howmuch fuel you would need based on
(14:58):
what you know about your fuel, yoursystem's, fuel consumption, and that's
fuel consumption, both during itsaverage load period, and then also fuel
consumption during peak load as well.
You don't wanna forget to takethat into account as well.
Now those of you in the healthcaresector, you know that you already
have a requirement that governs this.
(15:21):
NFPA 99 recommends.
All healthcare facilities haveenough viable fuel to run their
backup systems for at least how long?
96 hours.
That's four full 24 hour days.
So for your system, you willlikely know how much fuel
(15:43):
volume that is required to be.
Now, when I was thinkingabout how to talk about this.
What came to mind here is ifany of you have Netflix, right?
There is a new medicalshow new as of April, 2025.
There's a new medical show in therecalled Pulse, and it centers around things
(16:05):
that go on with emergency room doctorsin a hospital in Miami, Miami being
a prime hurricane strike zone, right?
And what in the first season of Pulse?
A couple of the episodes, the story arcfor a couple of the episodes in the middle
of the season had to do with the factthat a hurricane is bearing down upon
(16:25):
Miami and it's gonna hit this hospital.
And what happens in the series isthe hospital runs out of fuel and
they say, oh, that's not a problem.
We're supposed to begetting a fuel delivery.
And then they find out that, Idon't know, FEMA or whoever it was.
Diverted their fuel with thefuel that they were supposed
to get to someplace else.
And they're all scrambling aroundbecause they don't have enough
(16:48):
fuel to run their backup system.
You can imagine the problems that causes,and I'm watching this and I'm like.
That actually is extraordinarily unlikelyto happen in real life because that
hospital, it's a major hospital in Miamiand you can almost bet your mortgage
on the fact that hospital is going tobe in compliance with NFPA 99, which
(17:13):
means that hospital would already havebackup fuel for at least 96 hours.
That's just an example of a portrayalin popular culture that actually
intersects with what the regulationssay a hospital needs to have.
Okay, so that's hospitalshospitals and healthcare.
What about telecom?
Those of us in the telecom sector, what'syour priority here when it comes to,
(17:38):
scheduling fuel, making sure that youhave enough fuel to do what you need to
do during a hurricane event, your priorityis gonna be to keep your tier one hub
online if the remote towers go offline.
Temporarily.
Now again, you know your systembest, so what you're gonna be aiming
to do is identify the prioritysites in your system that are most
(18:02):
essential to making that happen.
Then you're gonna wanna seta fuel ration protocols, and
you're gonna wanna pre-arrange.
Fueling resupply routes to make surethat those essential sites have what they
need to keep those tier one hubs online.
So that is the third recommendation.
Fourth recommendation nowis the time to harden your
(18:25):
infrastructure against storm damage.
What does that mean?
That's gonna mean doing things thatprotect your essential fuel systems
from being interfered with by flooding,wind blowing debris, fuel line damage,
all the nice things that go along witha hurricane strike where you are now.
What exactly this is gonna look likeagain, depends on the uniqueness of
(18:46):
your situation on the healthcare side.
It's typically common to look at doingthings like elevating or enclosing day
tanks, and especially transfer pumps.
Those are very important because floodwaters can breach underground tanks.
So you wanna make sure that those kindsof things are elevated at least to
(19:06):
minimize the chance of that happening.
Now on the telecom side, there'sa different telecom also has to
worry about this kind of thingtoo, but there's another thing.
On the telecom side that you have toworry about, that is the possibility
that, after a hurricane hits everythingand moves on through, there's
gonna be a lot of chaos, right?
There's gonna be a lot of disarray.
And what you wanna think about ispossibility of people coming in after
(19:32):
a disaster, making off with thingsthat you don't want them to have.
That means, it could mean you wannainstall tamperproof enclosures at your
remote sites to prevent fuel theft, poststorm fuel theft after a major storm's.
More common than you might think.
If we look back last year, 2024, betweenJune and August, 2024, that's only
(19:58):
what, June, July, August, three months.
There were over 4,000 reports oftheft of things from telecom sites.
So when things are in disarray aftera major storm hits, you can bet that
there are people out there who mighthave their eye on unsecured sites.
You don't want it to be yours.
(20:19):
What do they do?
Have their eye on sight.
For what?
People love to take copper cables.
And if they know that a site hascopper cables, they're gonna go in.
If it's not secured.
And in trying to take those coppercables, they might cause other damage.
Like they might mistakenlycut fiber optic lines.
That's not good, right?
(20:40):
They will.
So copper, they'll target batteriesand power equipment and if they can
take a backup generator, they will.
Make sure you take the timenow to minimize the chances of
that kind of thing happening.
Okay?
Fifth thing you should do on thepreparation side is coordinate your
(21:02):
vendor and emergency fuel deliveries.
Take the time now to make sure that you'vegot priority contracts lined up with.
Not one, but multiple fuel vendors.
And along these lines, forgetting the fuelsupplies that you need, it can help if
you are part of a coalition of purchasersthat can plan and work together.
(21:26):
So hospitals and healthcarefacilities should be a part
of their region's healthcareemergency preparation Coalition.
Or any other mutual aid agreements thathappen to be in their particular area.
On the telecom side, one thing youcan do is you can register for Fuel
(21:46):
Priority under the fccs DisasterInformation Reporting System.
Some people might call it DS DIRS,and also register for Fuel Priority
under the telecommunicationsservice priority TSP system.
Both of those things are programs thatactually give telecom operators two
(22:10):
critical advantages during emergencies.
First, you get faster restorationof critical network functions.
If you're a member of the TSPof the telecom service priority.
What that does is it will assign apriority code to your telecom circuits,
to your data, links to your voice systems,to your control centers, and then.
(22:32):
After a major disaster, serviceproviders are legally required to
restore TSP tagged services beforethey restore non prioritized customers,
even other kinds of businesses.
That means if you'reregistered beforehand.
In the TSP system, that meansthat your critical communications
(22:56):
infrastructure gets earlier.
Attention for repairs, forrerouting, for bandwidth restoration
means it reduces your downtime.
All of that sounds really good, sothat means you should register for
TSP. Second big advantage is you getpriority access to fuel and priority
access to emergency services if you'reregistered in that DIRS, the DURs system.
(23:20):
DURs registration lets you reportreal-time operational leads needs.
If you got a fuel shortage at a generatorback site, you report that directly to
the FCC, which means it gets directlyreported to emergency management agencies.
And that matters because fuel vendors andemergency services will often consult.
(23:43):
The DURs listings when trying todecide who's gonna get refueling
support first after a storm.
And so if you are registered in the DIRSsystem, if you're registered in it and you
have reported a problem, that means you'reon the DIRS, the DURs priority list.
(24:04):
That means you are far less likelyto get stranded without fuel
during a prolonged grid outage.
When.
The field deliveries are scarcefor everybody else, so important.
Bottom line here on thisfifth recommendation is
DIRS and TSP registration.
They give you a formalgovernment backed priority.
(24:28):
Ford Network re network restoration andgenerator refueling, which helps your
telecom sites stay online when everyoneelse is competing for limited resources.
Now an example of this real life exampleof this was back in 2017 when Hurricane
Maria went through and basicallydevastated Puerto Rico after Maria.
(24:52):
Went through Port Puerto Rico, 95% ofthe cell towers in Puerto Rico were
offline fuel shortages everywhere.
Even operators who had generators,they couldn't keep them running because
diesel delivery trucks were, overwhelmed.
And they were prioritizinghospitals and government sites
and other official services.
(25:13):
And so the telecom companies if theydidn't have DIRS and TSP registrations.
They had no formal claim toprioritize fuel deliveries or
prioritize infrastructure repair.
And so there were many smallercarriers, many independent operators
who didn't really know about this.
(25:34):
They were all pushed tothe back of the line.
They didn't get torestore service for weeks.
But the major carriers, theat and t's, the T-Mobile's,
they already knew about this.
They were pre-registeredin the Durst system.
They had TSP priority codes alreadyassigned for their key circuits,
which means the major carriers.
(25:55):
They were able to request dieselfuel and get on prioritized fuel
resupply lists that were actuallycoordinated through FEMA and coordinated
through local emergency opine.
The major players theywere able to get in there.
The smaller carriers whodidn't know about this.
We're outta luck and the major carriersare also able to request emergency
(26:18):
repair crews, and they got the priorityaccess to the restricted disaster zones.
That's important because in PuertoRico, I. Everything was a disaster zone.
Zone, right?
And so they're limiting who can go where.
And because at and t, because T-Mobileand some of the other carriers had
already been registered in thesesystems, they were actually given
(26:42):
access to the restricted disaster zones.
That other people just couldn't go into.
So at and T-Mobile, we'll sayVerizon, they were able to get in
there, fix their the fiber opticcables that had been cut, fix the
towers, fix the switching equipment.
So they were able to restore theircritical coverage areas a lot faster
(27:04):
than their unregistered competitors.
So if you're in the telecom industry.
And you're not already in thedares system and you're not already
registered for TSP. If you are notin those before a storm hits like it
did in Puerto Rico, you're gonna befighting for the scraps afterwards.
But if you are registered, or youwere registered, you've got a seat
(27:28):
at the emergency management table.
So get registered.
That's recommendation number five.
Then.
Final recommendation.
Number six.
Take the time now to train yourpeople for scenarios, specifically
scenarios where systems happen to fail.
So a basic element of thisrecommendation is you should conduct
(27:50):
what they call tabletop drills, andyou should conduct them for outage
scenarios that last longer than thefuel supply that you know you've got.
So for healthcare facilities, thatmeans tabletop drill for scenarios
where you have ventilators, youhave vaccine refrigeration units,
you have electronic record systems,they need to remain online for days.
(28:14):
If everything else is out, do youknow how you're gonna respond to that?
A tabletop joke can help you with that.
And on the telecom side.
You should have tabletop drill thatsimulates multiple tower failures and
how you might have to reroute networktraffic to do load balancing and make,
(28:35):
redundant node behavior, stuff like that.
Tabletop drills are one of the smartestmost cost effective ways to prepare
for, emergences like hurricanes,especially when it comes to how you're
gonna deal with fuel and backup poweroperations in those critical sectors.
So a tabletop drill.
It's a guided scenario based discussion,if you will, where key team members
(28:59):
come together, they walk through theiremergency plans, that in response to
some hypothetical but realistic event,like a direct hurricane hit that causes
power outages and fuel shortages.
The goal here, it's not just tosit around and say, yay, we did
a yay, we did a tabletop drill.
No, the goal is.
(29:21):
You're looking to identify gaps,identify possible areas of confusion,
identify unrealistic expectationsthat people hold, get all that out
in the open so you can deal with thatbefore that real emergency happens.
It's low risk.
There's no equipment downtimebecause it's a tabletop drill.
You can do it in a meeting room.
(29:41):
You can even do it virtually if you want.
Think of it like a mental fire drillfor your operations and management.
Okay?
So how would a tabletop drill work?
Okay.
Here's basically how you do one.
Okay.
Number one is you gotta pick a scenario.
Pick a specific scenario.
(30:01):
Again, specific but reasonable.
Okay, so let's say categoryfour, hurricane makes landfall
within a hundred miles of us.
It knocks out grid power for fivedays, and emergency fuel deliveries
as a result are delayed by 72 hours.
Okay, that's your specific scenario.
(30:22):
Now, that's a serious scenario.
It's also not completely unrealistic too.
So that makes a good candidatefor a tabletop drill.
Okay, so you pick your scenario,then you assemble the people.
Kinds of people need to participateand contribute to a tabletop drill.
Operations managers seem obvious.
Facilities, teams, people who areon the facilities, teams like the
(30:45):
generator and generator expertsand the fuel system experts.
You want them in on this.
IT and networking teams, especiallyimportant on telecom side, obviously.
Communication staff,they need to be included.
And a fifth group of people that youdon't have to have them in there, but
if you can, it might be a good idea.
(31:06):
Our vendor contacts, so those kindsof people assemble all of them.
And so you're gonna walk throughthis emergency step by step and by
step we're talking about time-wise.
Okay?
So a. A general flow might be first12 hours after this storm hits.
(31:29):
What's supposed to activate, whogets called the rest of day one?
How are you gonna monitor fuel levels?
What's gonna be the protocol if yourfuel levels, if you're available?
Fuel level, drop below 50%.
Okay.
Run through that day two.
If a generator has an alarm or Godforbid, a generator fails, what
(31:50):
is the escalation path and theprotocol to deal with that days three
through five for a five day event?
How do you request emergency resupply?
What are you gonna do ifyou can reach the supply?
But they say we can't get to you.
What if the supplier can't reach you?
All kinds of things that youneed to talk about and plan for.
(32:12):
How you're gonna respond tothis in this tabletop drill.
And then there's also the last partrecovery phase because disasters
don't just stop after day five andthen everything goes back to normal.
There's a recovery phase after that.
So for your recovery phase, in yourhypothetical, who decides when to
return to normal operations and whathas to happen in order for them to
(32:32):
make that decision Now all along, whileyou're considering all of these things.
You need to challenge assumptionsthat you might normally make.
That's because if the assumptionsthat you have turn out to be wrong,
you've got real problems, right?
You know what if maybe you assumethat the automatic transfer switches
(32:53):
are going to flip on at this point.
What happens if they don't?
What happens if the a TS fails?
What happens if your cell serviceis down and your primary comms fail?
What happens if those priority fuelcontracts that you had lined up, what if
they fall through for whatever reason?
So you have to look at all of thoseassumptions, all those possibilities and
(33:16):
challenge them what you're gonna do ifthey turn out to be wrong, because after
it's all said and done, you wanna documentwhatever findings come out your drill.
Do after, simple after action reports,what did you find out that your strengths
were, what weaknesses became apparentthat maybe you didn't know about before?
(33:36):
And what should the assignmentsbe for these, for all the
stages of the situation?
Who fixes what by when, forexample, that kind of thing.
So that's what a tabletopdrill tends to look at.
Tabletop drills, again,they can be really useful.
For emergency planning, theycan be useful for fuel planning.
(33:58):
You can draw your team on how much dieselfuel you really are going to need based
on actual site load, not just on guesses.
They can be useful to help you withsupplier coordination because one
of the things you're likely to haveto do is you're likely to have to
identify and pre-clear secondaryvendors or tertiary fuel vendors even.
(34:20):
They, a tabletop drill can be helpfulfor generator testing procedures, confirm
who tests under load, who monitors therun hours how you're gonna recognize
early warning signs of generator failure.
Again, you're looking at all thatbeforehand because if you don't, and
that happens during the emergency,then you're dead in the water.
(34:43):
So the bottom line here, tabletop drillis a really useful tool that exposes
the hidden points, the hidden chokepoints where a hurricane can take
your system offline and then givesyou a chance to fix them ahead of time
when it still costs nothing but time.
(35:04):
Okay.
And then I know I said the sixth andfinal, actually, we have a seventh.
Seventh and final element of yourpreseason hurricane storm emergency
planning steps is document everything.
Document them for audits.
Document them for after action reviews.
Keep your fuel receipts.
Keep your test results.
(35:25):
Keep your maintenance logs.
Keep your load test reports.
Healthcare facilities have, are requiredto store all of these records be in
order to be to maintain compliancewith CMS emergency preparation
rules or preparedness rules.
Telecom people though, they don'thave, they don't have to deal able CMS,
(35:47):
but telecom people should use what'scalled NOC Level Reporting tools.
They're gonna use thoseto track their run hours.
And to dispatch refuelingalerts automatically.
Now, since this is the lastrecommendation, temptation is to try and
gloss over this to finish quickly, butthis last part is actually important.
(36:09):
So let's talk about CMS.
CMS is centers for Medicareand Medicaid Services.
CMS requires all healthcare facilities.
That means hospitals, skillednursing facilities, clinics.
They require them to document theiremergency preparedness activities
in detail, and CMS specificallycalls out backup power and backup
(36:35):
fuel systems to be included in that.
Okay.
Document what, here's what CMS expectsregarding fuel and generator documentation
first, fuel testing and maintenance log.
CMS wants to see records that show.
When the fuel was tested forwater microbial contamination
(36:56):
and overall degradation, andCMS wants to see if things like
biocides and stabilizers were used.
Those treatments have to be documented.
Okay?
So CMS wants to see that.
They also wanna seegenerator testing logs.
Remember we said early on that.
(37:16):
Every month you have to run a testunder 30% rated load for 30 minutes.
You have to document that, haverecords of all of those tests,
those monthly tests, and you needto document that you did a four hour
full load test at least once a year.
Then if any of those tests showedthat you needed to do, to do
(37:39):
some kind of corrective action.
You need to document that as well.
CMS is gonna wanna seerecords of all of that.
CMS is also gonna wanna see fuel inventorymonitoring information, ongoing records
of tank levels, calculations, showingthe minimum runtime in either hours
or days that your system would haverelative to the amount of fuel that
(38:04):
you have at a particular point in time.
And if there is an emergency that happens.
It doesn't have to be necessarilybe hurricane could be something
else, but if there's an emergencyand you get refueled, they want to
see a record of when that happened.
Okay?
You also wanna see vendor agreements andfuel supply contracts, so you're gonna
(38:26):
need to keep copies of standing contractswith your emergency fuel delivery vendors,
and you're gonna wanna file away proof.
That those suppliers are partof your recognized disaster
response networks, if possible.
Then last CMS wants to see after actionreports from those drills that you did.
(38:48):
If you did a tabletop exercise,what were the results?
If you did any kind of live drill,what were the results of that?
And if you did those and itled you to see that you need
to update your emergency plan.
Based on some lesson that you learnedfrom your tabletop drill if you did
any of those changes, if you did anyupdates on that, you need to document
(39:10):
that because CMS is gonna wanna seethat you have taken that into account.
So CMS surveys they can, and theywill request these documents during
inspections, especially if there'sbeen any kind of declared emergency.
And if you don't have thiskind of documentation.
There's consequences that can result.
You can get citations, youcan get funding penalties.
(39:33):
If it's really bad, you couldeven lose accreditation.
Of course, everybody who works in hospitaladministration already knows that.
Now that's all been hospital stuff.
What about on the telecom side?
Remember we talked about thisthing, this NOC level stuff.
Let's talk a little bitabout what we mean by that.
So NOC is network operations centers.
(39:56):
Every telecom system has them.
And in telecom operations, N Csare responsible network operations
centers are responsible for overseeingall the critical infrastructure.
And so when it comes to.
Backup power and fuel management.
The documentation expectations are goingto be things like the generator run our
(40:19):
logs, automatic logging of generator startstop times logging of cumulative runtime.
They want to see this because thatkind of thing helps predict fuel
consumption and helps schedulemaintenance for that system.
So they wanna see that.
And so one of the things that you cando, what you're gonna wanna do is you're
(40:40):
gonna wanna establish automatic alertsif a particular generating in your
system, if it's run hours of, let'ssay, approaches maintenance thresholds.
Like some of them requireoil changes every 250 hours.
So you're gonna wanna establishan automatic alert to notify you
so that you take care of that.
(41:00):
Okay?
Another thing NOC monitoring doeshas to do with fuel level monitoring.
You wanna have remote sensors inyour fuel tanks that report real time
fuel levels back to the NOC, backto the network operations center.
And with those sensors, youcan set thresholds, right?
You can set a threshold,let's say 50% of tank level.
(41:24):
You set this threshold so that if thefuel drops below that, it triggers
an automatic refueling alert to thelogistics team, which can then talk
to the vendors and get that done.
There's also alarm reporting.
Okay.
Any generator alarms that you have?
And generator alarms for telecomsystems could be things like low oil
(41:44):
pressure, cooling temperature, batteryfaults, any kind of generator alarm
that gets back to the NOC shouldautomatically create a ticket or
dispatch alert for immediate action sothat the problem can be looked at then
outage and restoration tracking right.
Incident logs showing when a sitewent on generator power, how long that
(42:07):
generator power ran for, and then whenthat site returned to commercial power,
the NOC needs to know all of that.
Not least because they have to dopost storm reporting to the FCC,
especially if they're registered underthe DURs system that we talked about.
And then vendor communicationlogs is the last one.
You NOC level notifications means theyneed records of emergency fuel requests,
(42:32):
they need delivery confirmations andnotifications of any supply chain issues
that might happen during storm events.
So going into hurricane season,if you are in the telecom sector.
You are going to want to be using thesekind of tools that allow telecom companies
to prove their regulatory complianceand optimize their emergency response.
(42:54):
So if you do, if you can setthese up, then very likely.
One of the things that's going to giveyou is you're gonna end up with an
automated flow of data that sends allthis important information to where and
to who it needs to go to, and that meansyou don't need to worry about that.
(43:14):
So seven big recommendations.
For a number of them are general, butwe also talked very specifically for
hospitals and healthcare and for telecom.
Seven big types of recommendations on whatyou can do now to prepare your system for
hurricane season so that you don't getcaught out by any unexpected problems.
(43:40):
With that, that is gonna do it for thisepisode of the Fuel Pulse Show Podcast.
What the 2025 hurricane season likelyto look like and the seven areas
of recommendation need to look atahead of time to make sure that you
are most prepared to handle whateverthe season's gonna throw at you.
Test your fuel quality,do your load testing.
Make sure that your fuel supplychain is adequate and set up,
(44:04):
protect your infrastructure.
Coordinate your vendor deliveries tomake sure that you're in line to get
what you need and get registered forthose those systems We talked about
train your people to make sure thateveryone knows what needs to be done
and knows who's gonna be doing whatduring critical emergency situation.
(44:25):
And document everything.
You do these things, you really willbe ahead of the game and it's gonna
save you a lot of headaches later.
And having said all that'sgonna do it for this episode
of the Fuel Pulse Show Podcast.
Again, thank you very much for joiningme as we walk through these issues.
If you haven't done already, feel free tosubscribe to the Fuel Pulse Show podcast
(44:49):
on your podcast, purveyor of Choice.
Give us a rating if you like what youheard, tell your friends, and as usual, we
will have links to all the kinds of thingsthat we talked about in the show notes.
So with that.
That's gonna do it.
I'll see you next time for the nextepisode of the Fuel Pulse Show podcast.
Welcome to the Fuel Pulse ShowPodcast, where we talk about all
things fuel for all kinds of people.
Once again, I'm your host, EricBjornstad, and I'll be your guide
through the ever-Changing World of Fuel.
Here at the podcast, we talk aboutall of the factors and considerations
that come into play when you'retalking about all the different
(00:21):
kinds of fuel that we have to use.
Not only in our professional lives, likeon the job, but also the stuff that we use
personally as well as all of the enginesand equipment and the things that we use.
That use that fuel both professionallyon the job, but then also things we
use at home to make our lives easier.
(00:41):
And so that means the Fuel PulseShow podcast is really for everybody.
So with that in mind, whatare we going to talk about on
today's episode of the podcast?
This is a piggyback.
Off of last episode that we did wherewe were talking about the predictions
for the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season.
(01:04):
Now, if you remember.
We said that the predictionsthus far are that it's going to
be a relatively normal season.
I think they said 15 named storms,about seven to eight hurricanes, three
major hurricanes was the consensusand all of those numbers slot into
what a typical hurricane season.
(01:26):
Has been over the last 30 years or sonow, there was a little bit of difference
of opinion between some of the groupsin what they call the ACE index.
ACE Index is a mathematical.
Compilation that they put togetherthat expresses numerically how
powerful all the sum total, allthe storms were in a given season.
(01:47):
And there was a little bit of diof disagreement between the groups
that offered these predictions.
Colorado State University, Ibelieve, thinks were gonna have
an above average, they said.
ACE Index of 155, which isabout 25% higher than normal.
But other groups like Tropical StormRisk Group predict a lot closer to
(02:09):
an average ACE index of about 110.
And the biggest reason for that differencewe found out was a difference in how they
view the sea temperatures are gonna be.
Colorado State seems to thinkthat we're gonna have warmer than
average Atlanta hurricane season.
Sea surface temperatures ratherwhereas tropical storm risk and
(02:30):
Arizona State University thinkthey're gonna be closer to normal.
And really, I think that's gonna be thebig determinant because warm water is
really the biggest primary driver forwhether you're gonna have unusually high
number of storms and more powerful storms.
How warm is that water?
(02:50):
That is what we talked about last time.
And then what we said is for thisepisode now we're gonna talk about,
not about, how bad is it gonnabe, but what does that tell us?
What do these predictions forthe hurricane season tell us?
About what we should be doing to preparefor the Atlantic hurricane season.
(03:13):
Even if a storm is supposed tobe quiet in aggregate, right?
It just takes one storm hitting the rightplace at the right time in order to make
the whole thing be a really bad event.
Now, hurricane season, typicallywe said, remember we said.
That it runs from June the firstthrough the end of November.
(03:34):
Typically the beginning part ofhurricane season's usually quiet.
It's really unusual to get, let'ssay, a major hurricane at the
beginning of hurricane season.
That's what we had lastyear with Hurricane Barrel.
It's really the first time in recentmemory that had ever happened, the
early to mid-summer is, even thoughthat's hurricane season, it's typically
(03:56):
still quiet so that, so if you arein a region of the country like
we are here in Florida, if you'rein a region of the country that
geographically would have reason tobe concerned with hurricane activity.
You have got time to prepare, butthe time to prepare is right now,
(04:16):
you do not want to let that get awayfrom you as much as the temptation
might be for that to happen.
So what we're gonna ask is thereanything that you need to do to
prepare for hurricane season if youare in an industry or a sector where.
Emergency backup fuel plays animportant role in what you're doing now.
(04:42):
There are general recommendationsfor everybody on what you should
do to prepare for hurricane season.
Then there's also things thatare specific for certain sectors.
That rely on emergency backupfuel, like healthcare environments.
Telecom installations are tworeally good examples of this.
Healthcare environments and telecom.
They have overlapping priorities,but there's, they also each have
(05:06):
their own unique challenges whenit comes to their emergency fuel
use during hurricane season.
So today we're gonna talk aboutsome recommendations, both general
recommendations for everybody, and thenspecific recommendations for those.
Two sectors.
Okay, so let's start.
(05:26):
First, recommendation, emergency backup.
Fuel quality must bereliable, no exceptions.
That means the recommendation for you is.
Test your emergency backupdiesel fuel for water microbial
contamination and degradation test.
(05:47):
You should be testing them everythree to six months, so when you
would want to do that relative tohurricane season, coming up upon
us really depends on when you last.
Tested your fuel.
If you last tested your fuel, back in2024, if it was before the start of the
(06:07):
year, then you definitely want to do thatnow before hurricane season gets underway.
Now, healthcare and telecomhad some additional wrinkles of
specificity that come into playfor the healthcare industry.
You are wanting to ensure that yourfuel quality complies with NFPA.
(06:29):
One 10 standards.
That's what you have to worry aboutwith the healthcare industry and they,
NFPA one 10 has certain standards,like they have a limit on, let's say
the percentage of water by volume thatyou can have in your storage tank.
That, that's gonna be one of yourguiding sets of requirements is what
an n fpa a one 10 says about your fuel.
(06:51):
And so you're gonna need to stick to that.
Now, for telecom, you've got this wrinklethat your critical sites, like your
cell towers and your switch centers.
Those kind of installations tendto use smaller storage tanks.
Smaller storage tanks are morevulnerable to condensation and
(07:13):
development of microbial growth,which means if you are in the telecom
industry and you are, have any kind ofresponsibility for emergency backup fuel.
The fact that your smaller tanks are more,more vulnerable to those problem causing
things means you are going to want to testmore frequently than three to six months.
(07:35):
Okay?
So that's recommendation number one, testyour fuel now to confirm its quality.
Recommendation number two, afterchecking your fuel quality is
conduct full generated load tests.
That means.
Testing your generators underreal operational load conditions,
not just doing a startup checkand then thinking that you've
(07:58):
done everything that you need to.
Now, real operational loads or fullgenerator load tests are gonna look
a little bit different for differentsectors in the healthcare industry.
They have some requirements already.
CMS.
And joint Commission already requiredoing at least 30 minutes of testing
(08:19):
at least 30% load every single month,plus an additional four hour load test.
Annually.
Now, if you are in the healthcare industryand you ha and any of that intersects
with your professional responsibilities,it's likely that you already know this.
And so it's likely, it's very likely thatyou are already in compliance with this.
(08:43):
And so the only thing that we wouldneed to stress there is again,
if you didn't know already theimportance of documenting everything.
Okay.
What about telecom?
Here you want to simulate full sitefailure including, very importantly,
including battery backup depletion, andit's because you're aiming to confirm
(09:04):
that if that happens to you, if thathappens in your area, you are aiming to
confirm that there will actually be aseamless switchover from UPS to generator.
Without it causing anything, likedropped calls or cutting service.
Now, this kind of testing, this kindof comprehensive load testing can
(09:26):
sometimes get skipped in telecom,but it's still really important to
do because the kind of testing thatwe're talking about here, it's gonna
show you things, it's gonna tell youthings that you may not be able to see
otherwise, and what you're looking for is.
You're gonna be looking for things thatare specifically related to generator
(09:47):
performance, related to fuel reliability,and related to switchover integrity.
Now, most telecom facilities, andagain, if you're in telecom, you
already know this, but we're justsaying it for everyone else's benefit.
Most telecom facilities by facilities,we're talking about switching centers.
We're talking about small cell nodes.
(10:08):
We're talking about data hubs.
Most telecom facilities havethese layers of redundancy when
it comes to maintaining power.
They start with getting theirprimary power from the power grid.
Okay?
If the power grid goes down, theredundancy is it switches to battery back
up, that UPS thing that we referenced.
(10:29):
But if the battery backup fails, thenyou have a diesel backup generator.
That is supposed to switch on,it's supposed to come into play
as the third layer of redundancy.
So the real test of yoursystem reliability or system
resilience, if you will.
It's, it doesn't come from just, startingthat generator up and making sure that
(10:50):
it starts the real test of your system.
Resilience comes from confirming thatyour system is going to automatically
switch over to the generator.
When both the grid power and the batteryfail, you're basically, you're confirming
that your fuel system that generatoruses and the generator relies on, you're
(11:12):
confirming that the fuel system reliablyor will reliably feed the generator
without issues, issues like, a clogin the fuel line or having air in the
fuel lines, or having fuel degradation.
So you're also confirming notonly that, you're also confirming.
That your critical systems aregonna stay online throughout.
(11:34):
An entire failover process, if you will.
Now, how exactly you do all of thisdepends to a certain extent on the
protocols laid out for your system.
So we can't really, sit here and telleverybody in telecom every single
step that's gonna apply to everybody.
It's not really the place for us to layout a comprehensive plan that's gonna
(11:58):
define the steps for everybody in thetelecom industry because everybody's
system is a little bit different.
But from a general standpoint, thekind of load testing that people in
the telecom industry should do inpreparation for hurricane season, it's
gonna involve basic steps up isolatingthe site from grid power number one.
(12:22):
Forcing the site to then drain thebattery system, number two, and then.
Verifying that the diesel generator thatremember that third layer of redundancy,
verifying that the diesel generator isthen gonna kick on within the required
time delay period, which is supposed to bebetween 10 and 30 seconds after the system
(12:44):
detects a low battery voltage situation.
So this kind of testing, it'sverifying that the generator's gonna
carry the full site load without anyvoltage drop, without any brown out.
It's verifying that the generatortransfers load automatically via
the automatic transfer switchas it's supposed to do, and it's
(13:07):
verifying whether it maintainsstable frequency for digital loads.
And then while all this is happening.
You're taking the opportunity toalso check the generator fuel system.
Are there any pressure drops?
Are the system filters functionalor do they exhibit evidence of
clogs or fuel, something thatmight cause fuel starvation?
(13:30):
Is there any smoke, any surge on startup?
Is the fuel consumptionrate under the real load?
Is it close to what it's supposed to be?
This kind of thing orthese kinds of things.
Like whether your entire powerredundancy chain works as opposed to
just the generator, that can reallyonly be confirmed under this kind of
(13:53):
full load test scenario, and this isthe time for you to make it happen.
This is the calm beforethe upcoming storms.
Something that you're gonna wanna do inadvance of hurricane season so that you're
prepared for that worst case scenario.
Basically, the time that youwanna do all of this is right now.
(14:15):
So that's the second thing.
Third thing, you've got a plan tosecure sufficient fuel inventory
to cover possible multi-day outagesduring a hurricane season event Now.
You have a backup system, but you can'trun backup systems without fuel, right?
Seems self-evident.
(14:36):
This is the time to make surethat you've got access to
enough fuel for an emergency.
You are not gonna wanna waittill the hurricane's bearing that
on you to verify make sure thatyou can get fuel if you need it.
Now for general recommendation, you shouldbe able because you know your system best.
You should be able to calculate howmuch fuel you would need based on
(14:58):
what you know about your fuel, yoursystem's, fuel consumption, and that's
fuel consumption, both during itsaverage load period, and then also fuel
consumption during peak load as well.
You don't wanna forget to takethat into account as well.
Now those of you in the healthcaresector, you know that you already
have a requirement that governs this.
(15:21):
NFPA 99 recommends.
All healthcare facilities haveenough viable fuel to run their
backup systems for at least how long?
96 hours.
That's four full 24 hour days.
So for your system, you willlikely know how much fuel
(15:43):
volume that is required to be.
Now, when I was thinkingabout how to talk about this.
What came to mind here is ifany of you have Netflix, right?
There is a new medicalshow new as of April, 2025.
There's a new medical show in therecalled Pulse, and it centers around things
(16:05):
that go on with emergency room doctorsin a hospital in Miami, Miami being
a prime hurricane strike zone, right?
And what in the first season of Pulse?
A couple of the episodes, the story arcfor a couple of the episodes in the middle
of the season had to do with the factthat a hurricane is bearing down upon
(16:25):
Miami and it's gonna hit this hospital.
And what happens in the series isthe hospital runs out of fuel and
they say, oh, that's not a problem.
We're supposed to begetting a fuel delivery.
And then they find out that, Idon't know, FEMA or whoever it was.
Diverted their fuel with thefuel that they were supposed
to get to someplace else.
And they're all scrambling aroundbecause they don't have enough
(16:48):
fuel to run their backup system.
You can imagine the problems that causes,and I'm watching this and I'm like.
That actually is extraordinarily unlikelyto happen in real life because that
hospital, it's a major hospital in Miamiand you can almost bet your mortgage
on the fact that hospital is going tobe in compliance with NFPA 99, which
(17:13):
means that hospital would already havebackup fuel for at least 96 hours.
That's just an example of a portrayalin popular culture that actually
intersects with what the regulationssay a hospital needs to have.
Okay, so that's hospitalshospitals and healthcare.
What about telecom?
Those of us in the telecom sector, what'syour priority here when it comes to,
(17:38):
scheduling fuel, making sure that youhave enough fuel to do what you need to
do during a hurricane event, your priorityis gonna be to keep your tier one hub
online if the remote towers go offline.
Temporarily.
Now again, you know your systembest, so what you're gonna be aiming
to do is identify the prioritysites in your system that are most
(18:02):
essential to making that happen.
Then you're gonna wanna seta fuel ration protocols, and
you're gonna wanna pre-arrange.
Fueling resupply routes to make surethat those essential sites have what they
need to keep those tier one hubs online.
So that is the third recommendation.
Fourth recommendation nowis the time to harden your
(18:25):
infrastructure against storm damage.
What does that mean?
That's gonna mean doing things thatprotect your essential fuel systems
from being interfered with by flooding,wind blowing debris, fuel line damage,
all the nice things that go along witha hurricane strike where you are now.
What exactly this is gonna look likeagain, depends on the uniqueness of
(18:46):
your situation on the healthcare side.
It's typically common to look at doingthings like elevating or enclosing day
tanks, and especially transfer pumps.
Those are very important because floodwaters can breach underground tanks.
So you wanna make sure that those kindsof things are elevated at least to
(19:06):
minimize the chance of that happening.
Now on the telecom side, there'sa different telecom also has to
worry about this kind of thingtoo, but there's another thing.
On the telecom side that you have toworry about, that is the possibility
that, after a hurricane hits everythingand moves on through, there's
gonna be a lot of chaos, right?
There's gonna be a lot of disarray.
And what you wanna think about ispossibility of people coming in after
(19:32):
a disaster, making off with thingsthat you don't want them to have.
That means, it could mean you wannainstall tamperproof enclosures at your
remote sites to prevent fuel theft, poststorm fuel theft after a major storm's.
More common than you might think.
If we look back last year, 2024, betweenJune and August, 2024, that's only
(19:58):
what, June, July, August, three months.
There were over 4,000 reports oftheft of things from telecom sites.
So when things are in disarray aftera major storm hits, you can bet that
there are people out there who mighthave their eye on unsecured sites.
You don't want it to be yours.
(20:19):
What do they do?
Have their eye on sight.
For what?
People love to take copper cables.
And if they know that a site hascopper cables, they're gonna go in.
If it's not secured.
And in trying to take those coppercables, they might cause other damage.
Like they might mistakenlycut fiber optic lines.
That's not good, right?
(20:40):
They will.
So copper, they'll target batteriesand power equipment and if they can
take a backup generator, they will.
Make sure you take the timenow to minimize the chances of
that kind of thing happening.
Okay?
Fifth thing you should do on thepreparation side is coordinate your
(21:02):
vendor and emergency fuel deliveries.
Take the time now to make sure that you'vegot priority contracts lined up with.
Not one, but multiple fuel vendors.
And along these lines, forgetting the fuelsupplies that you need, it can help if
you are part of a coalition of purchasersthat can plan and work together.
(21:26):
So hospitals and healthcarefacilities should be a part
of their region's healthcareemergency preparation Coalition.
Or any other mutual aid agreements thathappen to be in their particular area.
On the telecom side, one thing youcan do is you can register for Fuel
(21:46):
Priority under the fccs DisasterInformation Reporting System.
Some people might call it DS DIRS,and also register for Fuel Priority
under the telecommunicationsservice priority TSP system.
Both of those things are programs thatactually give telecom operators two
(22:10):
critical advantages during emergencies.
First, you get faster restorationof critical network functions.
If you're a member of the TSPof the telecom service priority.
What that does is it will assign apriority code to your telecom circuits,
to your data, links to your voice systems,to your control centers, and then.
(22:32):
After a major disaster, serviceproviders are legally required to
restore TSP tagged services beforethey restore non prioritized customers,
even other kinds of businesses.
That means if you'reregistered beforehand.
In the TSP system, that meansthat your critical communications
(22:56):
infrastructure gets earlier.
Attention for repairs, forrerouting, for bandwidth restoration
means it reduces your downtime.
All of that sounds really good, sothat means you should register for
TSP. Second big advantage is you getpriority access to fuel and priority
access to emergency services if you'reregistered in that DIRS, the DURs system.
(23:20):
DURs registration lets you reportreal-time operational leads needs.
If you got a fuel shortage at a generatorback site, you report that directly to
the FCC, which means it gets directlyreported to emergency management agencies.
And that matters because fuel vendors andemergency services will often consult.
(23:43):
The DURs listings when trying todecide who's gonna get refueling
support first after a storm.
And so if you are registered in the DIRSsystem, if you're registered in it and you
have reported a problem, that means you'reon the DIRS, the DURs priority list.
(24:04):
That means you are far less likelyto get stranded without fuel
during a prolonged grid outage.
When.
The field deliveries are scarcefor everybody else, so important.
Bottom line here on thisfifth recommendation is
DIRS and TSP registration.
They give you a formalgovernment backed priority.
(24:28):
Ford Network re network restoration andgenerator refueling, which helps your
telecom sites stay online when everyoneelse is competing for limited resources.
Now an example of this real life exampleof this was back in 2017 when Hurricane
Maria went through and basicallydevastated Puerto Rico after Maria.
(24:52):
Went through Port Puerto Rico, 95% ofthe cell towers in Puerto Rico were
offline fuel shortages everywhere.
Even operators who had generators,they couldn't keep them running because
diesel delivery trucks were, overwhelmed.
And they were prioritizinghospitals and government sites
and other official services.
(25:13):
And so the telecom companies if theydidn't have DIRS and TSP registrations.
They had no formal claim toprioritize fuel deliveries or
prioritize infrastructure repair.
And so there were many smallercarriers, many independent operators
who didn't really know about this.
(25:34):
They were all pushed tothe back of the line.
They didn't get torestore service for weeks.
But the major carriers, theat and t's, the T-Mobile's,
they already knew about this.
They were pre-registeredin the Durst system.
They had TSP priority codes alreadyassigned for their key circuits,
which means the major carriers.
(25:55):
They were able to request dieselfuel and get on prioritized fuel
resupply lists that were actuallycoordinated through FEMA and coordinated
through local emergency opine.
The major players theywere able to get in there.
The smaller carriers whodidn't know about this.
We're outta luck and the major carriersare also able to request emergency
(26:18):
repair crews, and they got the priorityaccess to the restricted disaster zones.
That's important because in PuertoRico, I. Everything was a disaster zone.
Zone, right?
And so they're limiting who can go where.
And because at and t, because T-Mobileand some of the other carriers had
already been registered in thesesystems, they were actually given
(26:42):
access to the restricted disaster zones.
That other people just couldn't go into.
So at and T-Mobile, we'll sayVerizon, they were able to get in
there, fix their the fiber opticcables that had been cut, fix the
towers, fix the switching equipment.
So they were able to restore theircritical coverage areas a lot faster
(27:04):
than their unregistered competitors.
So if you're in the telecom industry.
And you're not already in thedares system and you're not already
registered for TSP. If you are notin those before a storm hits like it
did in Puerto Rico, you're gonna befighting for the scraps afterwards.
But if you are registered, or youwere registered, you've got a seat
(27:28):
at the emergency management table.
So get registered.
That's recommendation number five.
Then.
Final recommendation.
Number six.
Take the time now to train yourpeople for scenarios, specifically
scenarios where systems happen to fail.
So a basic element of thisrecommendation is you should conduct
(27:50):
what they call tabletop drills, andyou should conduct them for outage
scenarios that last longer than thefuel supply that you know you've got.
So for healthcare facilities, thatmeans tabletop drill for scenarios
where you have ventilators, youhave vaccine refrigeration units,
you have electronic record systems,they need to remain online for days.
(28:14):
If everything else is out, do youknow how you're gonna respond to that?
A tabletop joke can help you with that.
And on the telecom side.
You should have tabletop drill thatsimulates multiple tower failures and
how you might have to reroute networktraffic to do load balancing and make,
(28:35):
redundant node behavior, stuff like that.
Tabletop drills are one of the smartestmost cost effective ways to prepare
for, emergences like hurricanes,especially when it comes to how you're
gonna deal with fuel and backup poweroperations in those critical sectors.
So a tabletop drill.
It's a guided scenario based discussion,if you will, where key team members
(28:59):
come together, they walk through theiremergency plans, that in response to
some hypothetical but realistic event,like a direct hurricane hit that causes
power outages and fuel shortages.
The goal here, it's not just tosit around and say, yay, we did
a yay, we did a tabletop drill.
No, the goal is.
(29:21):
You're looking to identify gaps,identify possible areas of confusion,
identify unrealistic expectationsthat people hold, get all that out
in the open so you can deal with thatbefore that real emergency happens.
It's low risk.
There's no equipment downtimebecause it's a tabletop drill.
You can do it in a meeting room.
(29:41):
You can even do it virtually if you want.
Think of it like a mental fire drillfor your operations and management.
Okay?
So how would a tabletop drill work?
Okay.
Here's basically how you do one.
Okay.
Number one is you gotta pick a scenario.
Pick a specific scenario.
(30:01):
Again, specific but reasonable.
Okay, so let's say categoryfour, hurricane makes landfall
within a hundred miles of us.
It knocks out grid power for fivedays, and emergency fuel deliveries
as a result are delayed by 72 hours.
Okay, that's your specific scenario.
(30:22):
Now, that's a serious scenario.
It's also not completely unrealistic too.
So that makes a good candidatefor a tabletop drill.
Okay, so you pick your scenario,then you assemble the people.
Kinds of people need to participateand contribute to a tabletop drill.
Operations managers seem obvious.
Facilities, teams, people who areon the facilities, teams like the
(30:45):
generator and generator expertsand the fuel system experts.
You want them in on this.
IT and networking teams, especiallyimportant on telecom side, obviously.
Communication staff,they need to be included.
And a fifth group of people that youdon't have to have them in there, but
if you can, it might be a good idea.
(31:06):
Our vendor contacts, so those kindsof people assemble all of them.
And so you're gonna walk throughthis emergency step by step and by
step we're talking about time-wise.
Okay?
So a. A general flow might be first12 hours after this storm hits.
(31:29):
What's supposed to activate, whogets called the rest of day one?
How are you gonna monitor fuel levels?
What's gonna be the protocol if yourfuel levels, if you're available?
Fuel level, drop below 50%.
Okay.
Run through that day two.
If a generator has an alarm or Godforbid, a generator fails, what
(31:50):
is the escalation path and theprotocol to deal with that days three
through five for a five day event?
How do you request emergency resupply?
What are you gonna do ifyou can reach the supply?
But they say we can't get to you.
What if the supplier can't reach you?
All kinds of things that youneed to talk about and plan for.
(32:12):
How you're gonna respond tothis in this tabletop drill.
And then there's also the last partrecovery phase because disasters
don't just stop after day five andthen everything goes back to normal.
There's a recovery phase after that.
So for your recovery phase, in yourhypothetical, who decides when to
return to normal operations and whathas to happen in order for them to
(32:32):
make that decision Now all along, whileyou're considering all of these things.
You need to challenge assumptionsthat you might normally make.
That's because if the assumptionsthat you have turn out to be wrong,
you've got real problems, right?
You know what if maybe you assumethat the automatic transfer switches
(32:53):
are going to flip on at this point.
What happens if they don't?
What happens if the a TS fails?
What happens if your cell serviceis down and your primary comms fail?
What happens if those priority fuelcontracts that you had lined up, what if
they fall through for whatever reason?
So you have to look at all of thoseassumptions, all those possibilities and
(33:16):
challenge them what you're gonna do ifthey turn out to be wrong, because after
it's all said and done, you wanna documentwhatever findings come out your drill.
Do after, simple after action reports,what did you find out that your strengths
were, what weaknesses became apparentthat maybe you didn't know about before?
(33:36):
And what should the assignmentsbe for these, for all the
stages of the situation?
Who fixes what by when, forexample, that kind of thing.
So that's what a tabletopdrill tends to look at.
Tabletop drills, again,they can be really useful.
For emergency planning, theycan be useful for fuel planning.
(33:58):
You can draw your team on how much dieselfuel you really are going to need based
on actual site load, not just on guesses.
They can be useful to help you withsupplier coordination because one
of the things you're likely to haveto do is you're likely to have to
identify and pre-clear secondaryvendors or tertiary fuel vendors even.
(34:20):
They, a tabletop drill can be helpfulfor generator testing procedures, confirm
who tests under load, who monitors therun hours how you're gonna recognize
early warning signs of generator failure.
Again, you're looking at all thatbeforehand because if you don't, and
that happens during the emergency,then you're dead in the water.
(34:43):
So the bottom line here, tabletop drillis a really useful tool that exposes
the hidden points, the hidden chokepoints where a hurricane can take
your system offline and then givesyou a chance to fix them ahead of time
when it still costs nothing but time.
(35:04):
Okay.
And then I know I said the sixth andfinal, actually, we have a seventh.
Seventh and final element of yourpreseason hurricane storm emergency
planning steps is document everything.
Document them for audits.
Document them for after action reviews.
Keep your fuel receipts.
Keep your test results.
(35:25):
Keep your maintenance logs.
Keep your load test reports.
Healthcare facilities have, are requiredto store all of these records be in
order to be to maintain compliancewith CMS emergency preparation
rules or preparedness rules.
Telecom people though, they don'thave, they don't have to deal able CMS,
(35:47):
but telecom people should use what'scalled NOC Level Reporting tools.
They're gonna use thoseto track their run hours.
And to dispatch refuelingalerts automatically.
Now, since this is the lastrecommendation, temptation is to try and
gloss over this to finish quickly, butthis last part is actually important.
(36:09):
So let's talk about CMS.
CMS is centers for Medicareand Medicaid Services.
CMS requires all healthcare facilities.
That means hospitals, skillednursing facilities, clinics.
They require them to document theiremergency preparedness activities
in detail, and CMS specificallycalls out backup power and backup
(36:35):
fuel systems to be included in that.
Okay.
Document what, here's what CMS expectsregarding fuel and generator documentation
first, fuel testing and maintenance log.
CMS wants to see records that show.
When the fuel was tested forwater microbial contamination
(36:56):
and overall degradation, andCMS wants to see if things like
biocides and stabilizers were used.
Those treatments have to be documented.
Okay?
So CMS wants to see that.
They also wanna seegenerator testing logs.
Remember we said early on that.
(37:16):
Every month you have to run a testunder 30% rated load for 30 minutes.
You have to document that, haverecords of all of those tests,
those monthly tests, and you needto document that you did a four hour
full load test at least once a year.
Then if any of those tests showedthat you needed to do, to do
(37:39):
some kind of corrective action.
You need to document that as well.
CMS is gonna wanna seerecords of all of that.
CMS is also gonna wanna see fuel inventorymonitoring information, ongoing records
of tank levels, calculations, showingthe minimum runtime in either hours
or days that your system would haverelative to the amount of fuel that
(38:04):
you have at a particular point in time.
And if there is an emergency that happens.
It doesn't have to be necessarilybe hurricane could be something
else, but if there's an emergencyand you get refueled, they want to
see a record of when that happened.
Okay?
You also wanna see vendor agreements andfuel supply contracts, so you're gonna
(38:26):
need to keep copies of standing contractswith your emergency fuel delivery vendors,
and you're gonna wanna file away proof.
That those suppliers are partof your recognized disaster
response networks, if possible.
Then last CMS wants to see after actionreports from those drills that you did.
(38:48):
If you did a tabletop exercise,what were the results?
If you did any kind of live drill,what were the results of that?
And if you did those and itled you to see that you need
to update your emergency plan.
Based on some lesson that you learnedfrom your tabletop drill if you did
any of those changes, if you did anyupdates on that, you need to document
(39:10):
that because CMS is gonna wanna seethat you have taken that into account.
So CMS surveys they can, and theywill request these documents during
inspections, especially if there'sbeen any kind of declared emergency.
And if you don't have thiskind of documentation.
There's consequences that can result.
You can get citations, youcan get funding penalties.
(39:33):
If it's really bad, you couldeven lose accreditation.
Of course, everybody who works in hospitaladministration already knows that.
Now that's all been hospital stuff.
What about on the telecom side?
Remember we talked about thisthing, this NOC level stuff.
Let's talk a little bitabout what we mean by that.
So NOC is network operations centers.
(39:56):
Every telecom system has them.
And in telecom operations, N Csare responsible network operations
centers are responsible for overseeingall the critical infrastructure.
And so when it comes to.
Backup power and fuel management.
The documentation expectations are goingto be things like the generator run our
(40:19):
logs, automatic logging of generator startstop times logging of cumulative runtime.
They want to see this because thatkind of thing helps predict fuel
consumption and helps schedulemaintenance for that system.
So they wanna see that.
And so one of the things that you cando, what you're gonna wanna do is you're
(40:40):
gonna wanna establish automatic alertsif a particular generating in your
system, if it's run hours of, let'ssay, approaches maintenance thresholds.
Like some of them requireoil changes every 250 hours.
So you're gonna wanna establishan automatic alert to notify you
so that you take care of that.
(41:00):
Okay?
Another thing NOC monitoring doeshas to do with fuel level monitoring.
You wanna have remote sensors inyour fuel tanks that report real time
fuel levels back to the NOC, backto the network operations center.
And with those sensors, youcan set thresholds, right?
You can set a threshold,let's say 50% of tank level.
(41:24):
You set this threshold so that if thefuel drops below that, it triggers
an automatic refueling alert to thelogistics team, which can then talk
to the vendors and get that done.
There's also alarm reporting.
Okay.
Any generator alarms that you have?
And generator alarms for telecomsystems could be things like low oil
(41:44):
pressure, cooling temperature, batteryfaults, any kind of generator alarm
that gets back to the NOC shouldautomatically create a ticket or
dispatch alert for immediate action sothat the problem can be looked at then
outage and restoration tracking right.
Incident logs showing when a sitewent on generator power, how long that
(42:07):
generator power ran for, and then whenthat site returned to commercial power,
the NOC needs to know all of that.
Not least because they have to dopost storm reporting to the FCC,
especially if they're registered underthe DURs system that we talked about.
And then vendor communicationlogs is the last one.
You NOC level notifications means theyneed records of emergency fuel requests,
(42:32):
they need delivery confirmations andnotifications of any supply chain issues
that might happen during storm events.
So going into hurricane season,if you are in the telecom sector.
You are going to want to be using thesekind of tools that allow telecom companies
to prove their regulatory complianceand optimize their emergency response.
(42:54):
So if you do, if you can setthese up, then very likely.
One of the things that's going to giveyou is you're gonna end up with an
automated flow of data that sends allthis important information to where and
to who it needs to go to, and that meansyou don't need to worry about that.
(43:14):
So seven big recommendations.
For a number of them are general, butwe also talked very specifically for
hospitals and healthcare and for telecom.
Seven big types of recommendations on whatyou can do now to prepare your system for
hurricane season so that you don't getcaught out by any unexpected problems.
(43:40):
With that, that is gonna do it for thisepisode of the Fuel Pulse Show Podcast.
What the 2025 hurricane season likelyto look like and the seven areas
of recommendation need to look atahead of time to make sure that you
are most prepared to handle whateverthe season's gonna throw at you.
Test your fuel quality,do your load testing.
Make sure that your fuel supplychain is adequate and set up,
(44:04):
protect your infrastructure.
Coordinate your vendor deliveries tomake sure that you're in line to get
what you need and get registered forthose those systems We talked about
train your people to make sure thateveryone knows what needs to be done
and knows who's gonna be doing whatduring critical emergency situation.
(44:25):
And document everything.
You do these things, you really willbe ahead of the game and it's gonna
save you a lot of headaches later.
And having said all that'sgonna do it for this episode
of the Fuel Pulse Show Podcast.
Again, thank you very much for joiningme as we walk through these issues.
If you haven't done already, feel free tosubscribe to the Fuel Pulse Show podcast
(44:49):
on your podcast, purveyor of Choice.
Give us a rating if you like what youheard, tell your friends, and as usual, we
will have links to all the kinds of thingsthat we talked about in the show notes.
So with that.
That's gonna do it.
I'll see you next time for the nextepisode of the Fuel Pulse Show podcast.
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