STEP at 20: Showing the Industry’s Strength Through Preparation

Mutual assistance has long been part of the electric power industry’s DNA.

As electric companies, our strength is collective, and our culture of continuous improvement means we are constantly looking to improve safety, reliability, and service to customers.

While our mutual assistance work is commonly associated with storm response, our companies support one another in several other areas, including physical and cybersecurity initiatives. Amid a backdrop of geopolitical uncertainty, these collaborative resilience efforts are especially important today as our industry works to strengthen and safeguard America’s critical energy infrastructure.

Twenty years ago, we broadened our mutual assistance footprint by launching the Spare Transformer Equipment Program (STEP), ensuring we could coordinate and respond quickly following a direct attack on critical American infrastructure.

The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, changed so much for so many. As an industry central to the safety and security of the nation, we knew we needed to be part of the solution and, as we always do, have plans in place for worst-case scenarios.

In the years that followed the attacks, I was proud to be part of an industrywide effort to safeguard our grid against bad actors through the founding of STEP. The program provides participating companies with access to a large pool of hard-to-replace assets when, for example, a terrorist attack destroys a substation with large power transformers and causes a significant transmission outage. Members—consisting of investor-owned electric companies, public power utilities, and federal power marketing administrations—maintain a supply of spare transformers and other hard-to-replace assets that fellow members can readily access—and are required to share—in the event of an attack.

Unfortunately, electric companies know too well the long lead times associated with purchasing new transformers and new grid equipment in the event that existing assets are damaged—which is magnified during an attack or crisis event when every moment without power counts. STEP mitigates these lead times and helps ensure its members can respond quickly and efficiently.

Thankfully, in its 20 years, STEP has never seen a terrorist event cause a significant transmission outage. Even so, its members collaborate regularly and have used the STEP framework to support one another in other emergency situations. The continued strength of the program, and the robust, trusted community of industry peers that it has fostered, speaks to one of our superpowers as an industry: our commitment to preparation and collaboration.

We know that our companies and our industry power our customers’ lives and the broader U.S. economy. And, we know that, time and again, bad actors are targeting the grid to inflict maximum impact on the American people.

That means we must constantly remain on the front foot. What secures the grid and keeps our customers safe today will not remain static, and it is through programs like STEP that we plan and prepare for evolving threats to our grid and our national security.

I am proud that, 20 years after its founding, STEP remains a critical tool in our industry’s emergency response toolbox—a tool that, while we hope to never need it, is sharp and ready if we do.

Mike Innocenzo is Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Exelon and Interim President and CEO, PECO