The American Public Power Association and Tennessee Valley Authority recently co-hosted a workshop and tabletop exercise in Huntsville, Ala., focused on mutual aid and cybersecurity. The event was held in partnership with Alabama public power utility Huntsville Utilities and Electric Cities of Alabama.
Participating organizations included public power utilities and representatives from CISA, the FBI, Redstone Arsenal, the U.S. Army, the U.S. National Guard, and state and local emergency management agencies.
MAX 2026 marked APPA's first exercise bringing together a public power utility and a military facility to examine coordination during a major emergency.
The MAX 2026 workshop brought together public power utilities, government, cybersecurity, emergency management, and other partners to strengthen relationships and build a shared understanding of how organizations coordinate during complex utility incidents.
Sessions explored the Public Power Mutual Aid Network, Cyber Mutual Assistance, federal law enforcement coordination, and state and local partnerships.
The exercise scenario involved an ice storm that impacts northern Alabama and south-central Tennessee, creating widespread outages and dangerous restoration conditions.
As mutual aid crews arrive, an opportunistic cyberattack undermines trusted operational data, complicating restoration in Huntsville, Alabama and at Redstone Arsenal.
Exercise participants worked through the scenario together, focusing on three areas:
• Mutual Aid: Rapidly receiving, onboarding, and safely integrating crews from multiple utilities.
• Cyber Mutual Assistance: Identifying cyber response needs and incorporating external cyber resources into response and recovery.
• Military Facility Coordination: Strengthening coordination among public power utilities and government partners when outages affect military facilities.
The Workshop had 60 attendees representing 22 organizations while the Exercise had 64 attendees representing 26 organizations.
APPA said it will use lessons from MAX 2026 to continue strengthening mutual aid, emergency preparedness, cyber coordination, and resources that support public power utilities across the country.
