Protecting Electricity Networks from Natural Hazards

The “Protecting Electricity Networks from Natural Hazards” project was initiated by the OSCE’s Office of the Co-ordinator of Economic and Environmental Activities (OCEEA) to help participating States strengthen the resilience of their critical electricity infrastructure against natural disasters. It was developed in direct follow-up to the 2013 OSCE Ministerial Council Decision on “Protecting Energy Networks from Natural and Man-Made Disasters” (MC.DEC/6/13), which tasked OCEEA with facilitating the exchange of good practices, technological innovation and information on how to better protect energy networks, with a specific focus on electricity. Financial support was provided by several participating States, including Austria, Germany, Slovakia and the United States.
As a key step in implementing this mandate, OCEEA convened an Expert Workshop on Sharing Best Practices to Protect Electricity Networks from Natural Disasters in Vienna in July 2014. The workshop gathered government officials from OSCE participating States, representatives of international organizations, transmission system operators, the insurance industry and academia to discuss risks from geophysical, hydrological, meteorological and climatological hazards and to review existing practices across the full disaster risk reduction cycle. The discussions covered risk assessment and vulnerability analysis, preparedness and prevention, technical and organizational mitigation measures, emergency management, reconditioning and recovery. The conclusions and recommendations from this multi-stakeholder dialogue formed the backbone of the subsequent Handbook.
The project’s main output is a practitioner-oriented handbook that translates scientific knowledge and field experience into an accessible reference for policymakers, regulators, civil protection authorities, TSOs, infrastructure owners and operators, and civil society. It provides an overview of core concepts and tools for risk mitigation and management, illustrates them through case studies of major blackouts and extreme events in different countries, and presents good practices from both public and private sector stakeholders. Rather than prescribing a step-by-step manual, the handbook offers a “snapshot” of diverse approaches and emphasizes comprehensive, cooperative risk governance—encouraging closer collaboration among governments, regulators, industry, financial institutions and NGOs to continuously improve the resilience of electricity transmission networks to natural hazards.