City Public Service Energy Physical Security Training Courses

The Client
City Public Service (CPS) Energy, San Antonio

The Challenge
For San Antonio's City Public Service (CPS) Energy, the protection of power plants, switching yards, and other electrical power grid facilities is of primary importance. A special concern for CPS Energy managers was the range of personnel who needed to complete the physical security courseware. Some employees had decades of experience and were highly knowledgeable of plant operations, while others were very new to the power industry and were raised in an era of computerized interfaces and gaming. The training had to appeal to all employees across the CPS Energy enterprise.

The Solution
Karta Instructional Systems Designers (ISDs) conducted a thorough front-end analysis, gathering essential elements of information through structured interviews, review of written procedures, and examination of historic documents. ISDs also visited the power generation plants in the San Antonio area, took pictures, examined current physical protection processes, and talked to managers about plant-specific vulnerability assessments and exercises that had been conducted in the past. All of these data went into the physical security courseware to present a complete picture of physical security concerns within the CPS Energy system.

The Results
The Karta courseware was commended by CPS Energy managers for its extreme high quality - for it realistic scenario-based approach to instruction and the inclusion of "informational nuggets" gleaned from the highly knowledgeable workers with years of CPS Energy power plant operational experience.

In fact, CPS Energy implemented an entire media campaign to promote the Karta courseware. To appeal to a certain demographic, Karta adjusted the courseware to include a female spokesperson - she, in turn, was featured on the poster campaign, and CPS Energy employees completed the physical security training courseware in record numbers.