Cold Weather Operations & Preparedness

Winter readiness breaks in the handoffs—between the forecast and unit capability, fuel status and dispatch, EEA criteria and load action, or the control room and the next shift.

This course brings those signals into one operating picture so utility personnel can practice readiness, escalation, communication, controlled action, verification, and after-action evidence before the system is under stress.

Course structure

• 8 core modules plus Start Here
• 25 learner-visible pages
• 8 scored quizzes and 45 questions
• 7 module checks at 80% and a 10-question final at 100%
• Approximately 7–9 hours of focused study
• 365-day access and a completion certificate

What you will practice

• Turn a five-day hourly extreme-cold forecast into owned triggers and review times.
• Separate confirmed, uncertain, and discounted capability, including fuel and cold-start limitations.
• Apply the EOP-012-3 R2/R3 unit paths, ECWT, freeze-protection, CAP, and constraint boundaries.
• Diagnose transmission, icing, voltage, reactive, and outage-posture risk.
• Classify EEA 1, 2, and 3 using the complete EOP-011-4 Attachment 1 conditions.
• Use plan-controlled load shed, COM-002 Operating Instruction protocols, and IRO-001 authority boundaries.
• Build contemporaneous evidence, retention, corrective-action, and handoff records.

Included applied tool

A four-page fillable Cold-Weather Operator Record with 221 named fields, tooltips, sequential tab order, save/reopen support, and pages for forecast/capability, EOP-012 readiness, EEA/load shed/communications, and after-action evidence.

Current-source anchors: EOP-011-4, EOP-012-3, TOP-002-5, COM-002-4, IRO-001-4, and the NERC Glossary. Current official standards, approved entity plans and procedures, limits, regional rules, and assigned authority control workplace decisions.