National Grid pandemic flu plans serve as models

As this year’s flu season begins – the third since the World Health Organization issued a dramatic warning that a deadly strain of bird influenza could leap to humans – National Grid is keeping itself at the forefront of utilities’ efforts to prepare for a possible flu pandemic.
The company, which provides electricity and natural gas to most homes and businesses in Rhode Island, is among many utilities across the nation that have developed business continuity plans specifically geared to contend with the challenges that would be posed by an avian flu pandemic in North America.
Were such a pandemic to occur, billions of people worldwide would be exposed to the deadly virus, killing an estimated 2 million to 7 million people, according to the WHO. In such a scenario, utilities would play a crucial role in managing the public health emergency, said Victoria Ladd-de Graff, an emergency planning coordinator for National Grid who leads the company’s work to prepare for a possible flu pandemic.
“We’re taking it very seriously,” she said. “If the world is going through a catastrophe with a pandemic, we realize that it’s absolutely critical that we try to minimize any disruption by continuing to provide our customers with service.”
Since 2005, Ladd-de Graff has led National Grid’s efforts to develop a plan to keep as many of its employees healthy and working in the event of an avian flu outbreak, and to maintain critical utility services with reduced staff.
Ladd de-Graf has asked every department in National Grid to prepare for staff reductions of various levels, she said.
“We say, ‘Can you conduct your business with a loss of 15 percent, a loss of 25 percent and a loss of 40 percent, and what are your contingencies at each of those levels?’ ” she said. “We have to look at what we will and we must continue to provide to our customers, but part of our assessment is, what are we going to stop doing, what is not essential?”
The business continuity plan also involves identifying government regulations that National Grid would seek temporary release from in the event of a pandemic, Ladd-de Graff said.
Also as part of the plan, National Grid has created a health program for all of its employees which includes annual flu vaccinations and education programs that teach staff about the risks of flu and the ways the virus is spread, she said.
Like all influenza outbreaks, an avian flu pandemic would be overwhelmingly spread via fluids passed through the mouth and nose, so National Grid employees are reminded to wash their hands often and practice better hygiene in general, Ladd-de Graff said.
“A lot of it is education,” she said. “The experts are saying that the more sterile you can keep your environment and yourself, the less likely that you are going to pick up the flu.”
To a great extent, National Grid is developing its avian flu emergency plan in concert with other utilities across the nation, following broad guidelines laid out by industry groups such as the Edison Electrical Institute and the North American Reliability Council, Ladd-de Graff said.
But National Grid is seen as a leading innovator of such preparations, she said. The utility has been lauded for mock drills of an avian flu pandemic that it has conducted in front of government regulators, and the company recently got high marks on its business continuity plan from a team of auditors sent by the utility’s parent company in London, National Grid plc, Ladd-de Graff said.
“We’ve drilled pandemic here at National Grid,” she said. “It went well, and it raised lots of awareness.”
The drills have gone well enough that several other utility companies have adopted the exact same protocols for their own drills, Ladd-de Graff said – which is great, as far as National Grid is concerned.
Utility companies that are traditional competitors are collaborating to develop benchmarks and best practices for pandemic influenza preparedness. Ladd-de Graff belongs to several working groups with counterparts at other utilities. At one meeting of such a working group, she said she gave National Grid’s entire avian flu planning template to a representative of another company.
“They were not quite up to where we were, and I said, ‘Well, you know, this is what’s helped us and maybe it will help you,’ ” Ladd-de Graff said. “There’s kind of a brother-sisterhood of sharing information, because we all need to get through this.” •