Austria-wide blackout exercise "Helios"

Austria is rehearsing for an emergency – a widespread power cut lasting 3 days.

The crisis exercise runs until Wednesday, 15 May 2019, and above all aims to test how well cooperation works in an emergency, reports futurezone.at (German).

A three-day Austria-wide crisis exercise called “Helios” began on Monday. Under the leadership of the Ministry of the Interior (BMI), a fictitious Austria-wide blackout and its consequences are being practised from 13 to 15 May. 100 representatives of the federal ministries, the federal states, the emergency services and infrastructure facilities are taking part. The exercise was prepared by the Ministry of the Environment.

The starting scenario is a Europe-wide electricity shortage followed by a blackout, which could have effects on various areas of society and life, ministries, the federal states and the emergency services, right up to critical infrastructure. According to the BMI, participants are to recognise where they can still work on their “resilience”, the “strength to cope with crises”. “Helios” makes it possible for the first time “to bring all the important and relevant players, organisations and institutions together at one table, across all boundaries of responsibility and ministries, within the ‘SKKM family’”, the BMI said. The aim is to practise networking and interaction in an emergency. SKKM stands for “Staatliches Krisen- und Katastrophenmanagement und Koordination Zivile Sicherheit” (State crisis and disaster management and coordination of civil security).

“Tabletop” exercise

“There is almost no area of life that does not depend on electricity, and in this exercise we want to anticipate how we, particularly at federal level, can best deal with an electricity shortage,” explained Robert Stocker, head of Department II/13 “SKKM”. The Federal Ministry of Sustainability and Tourism (BMNT) was largely involved in the preparation and design of the crisis exercise.

Carrying out a strategic crisis exercise with the participation of all ministries and federal states is provided for in the BMI’s 2019 work programme. In its work programme, State Crisis and Disaster Management decided to accompany the strategic crisis exercise “electricity shortage/blackout” (“Helios”). According to the SKKM’s description, the exercise is designed as a “tabletop” exercise with individual inputs for the participants, situation reports and other staff work within the SKKM network and in the SKKM committees.

The focus of the exercise is networking at federal level. Such an energy crisis could have a wide range of effects, which is why the interaction and coordination between the various organisational units are at the centre.

A particularly complex scenario

Information, supply and assistance services therefore have to be coordinated to varying degrees at national level. The assumed scenario exceeds the risk scenarios used so far in intensity. This means new demands on the SKKM, and the actors, structures, processes and decisions in the SKKM would “in part have to be reorganised and their cooperation redefined”. As coordinator, the BMI will try to support the decisions of the actors involved (ministries, federal states, emergency services) as well as possible by providing a functioning SKKM mechanism.

All SKKM partners were invited to take part in “Helios”: representatives of the ministries and federal states, the emergency services (such as the fire brigade association and the Red Cross) and, because of the chosen scenario, Austrian Power Grid AG (APG) and E-Control. The exercise is intended to lead to new findings, which will then be built into the SKKM’s structures. On the third day of the exercise the federal government is to be involved, the SKKM said, and will be briefed on the fictitious crisis situation after the Council of Ministers.

Widespread power cuts – “blackouts” – and their possible consequences are the central subject of Herbert Saurugg. We are trying to obtain an assessment of the Helios exercise from him and to make it available here as well.

Source: futurezone.at (German)