Constellation Energy's Business Continuity Program Exemplifies Planning Excellence
According to Bob Cornelius, director of business continuity for Constellation Energy, when Mayo Shattuck first joined the company as CEO in October 2001, he sought out the business continuity program immediately.
"Our program had endorsement right from the top right from the beginning," said Bob Cornelius in the September/October 2006 issue of Continuity Insights magazine, which featured Constellation Energy's business continuity program as an example of planning excellence.
Continuity planning was a high priority for CEO Mayo Shattuck and other business leaders following the events of 9/11. From a business continuity perspective, 9/11 really drove home the lesson that a unified, enterprise-wide continuity program is absolutely critical, and needs to be ready at a moment's notice.
Constellation Energy began getting serious about its business continuity program in the years just prior to 9/11 as the company fully absorbed the lessons of Y2K. Cornelius ran the millennium program for Constellation Energy, and found that that the company had strong plans in place for energy generation and distribution emergencies. However, the exponential growth of Constellation Energy, which has more than quadrupled revenues in the five years under Mayo Shattuck's direction, created opportunities to align continuity planning with the increased size of the enterprise.
Today, Mayo Shattuck is proud to report that Constellation Energy has nearly 800 business continuity coordinators, building wardens and risk coordinators who oversee emergency preparedness initiatives and manage recovery from events such as a terrorist attack like 9/11 or Hurricane Isabel in 2003. The company's plans and personnel were put to the test when Hurricane Isabel struck Baltimore, Md., where Constellation Energy is headquartered. Hurricane Isabel's storm surge flooded Baltimore's Inner Harbor area, cutting off access to the downtown headquarters buildings. Compounding matters, the hurricane's winds had knocked out power lines all across the Central Maryland territory of Constellation Energy's BGE utility.
"The continuous focus on business continuity initiatives, backed up with a dedication of resources and personnel paid dividends during the recovery from Hurricane Isabel," said Mayo Shattuck. "Operations were seamlessly moved to one of Constellation Energy's hot sites while the headquarters was recovered and power was restored to the region."
Constellation Energy benchmarks its business continuity program using NFPA/ANSI 1600, which is endorsed by the National Fire Protection Agency and the 9/11 Commission as the standard for disaster/emergency management and business continuity programs.
Constellation Energy, a FORTUNE 200 company with 2005 revenues of $17.1 billion, is the nation's largest competitive supplier of electricity to large commercial and industrial customers and the nation's largest wholesale power seller. Under Mayo Shattuck's leadership, Constellation Energy manages fuels and energy services on behalf of energy intensive industries and utilities, owns a diversified fleet of more than 100 generating units located throughout the United States, totaling approximately 12,000 megawatts of generating capacity, and delivers electricity and natural gas through its regulated utility in Central Maryland.
More on the Constellation Energy business continuity program can be found in Continuity Insights' September/October 2006 issue. The magazine is a leading publication for decision-makers responsible for developing strategies to assure integrity, availability and security of business functions.