Hotline of power engineering specialists:
15 November 2017, the branch "Smolenskenergo" in Roslavlsky district and in the city of Desnogorsk of the Smolensk region held an extraordinary exercise to eliminate consequences of massive outages of power grid facilities caused by impact of hazardous meteorological phenomena. Operating staff of IDGC of Centre - Smolenskenergo division together with territorial grid organizations, the EMERCOM of the Russian Federation in the Smolensk region, local authorities, emergency response crews of the neighbouring region practiced interaction skills in the event of large power outages.
According to the legend of the exercise, as the weather forecast said, a set of unfavourable phenomena was expected in the south of the Smolensk region: wet snow, increased wind with gusts up to 15-20 m/s, decrease in temperature to -10°C with transition through 0°C, ice formation. In the morning on the territory of the Smolensk region (according to the plan of the exercise) there was wet snow, wind up to 13-18 m/s, ambient temperature at -1°C, snow sticking was observed on wires, ice formation. This led to massive outages in the 6-10 kV grid.
Under the terms of the exercise in the first stage, the work of the branch was organized in the conditions of a risk of technological disruptions in the operation of power grid facilities caused by hazardous natural phenomena. Smolenskenergo held a meeting of the crisis management centre, a high alert operation mode was introduced, and temporary information centres were deployed to work with residents of the affected district. In the course of the second stage, there was a grid-wide training on the topic: "Emergency outage of the Mikhailovskaya-Prechistoye overhead line, leading to interruption of electricity supply to consumers". Participants worked out cooperation in the event of liquidation of a possible emergency situation in the conditions of unfavourable meteorological phenomena.
At the third stage, Smolenskenergo’s work was organized in the context of the emergence of massive technological disruptions in the operation of the power grid facilities caused by hazardous natural phenomena. The branch entered a special mode of operation. The next stage is the organization and practical development of issues of rendering assistance to the territorial grid organization JSC "ElS" (the city of Desnogorsk) to restore power supply to de-energized consumers with the use of Smolenskenergo’s reserve sources of supply. At the last, the fifth stage, the emergency restoration work was completed, the branch was transferred to the daily routine, the results of the exercise were summed up.
According to the leaders, the exercise was successful, all planned activities were carried out promptly and in full, thanks to the well-coordinated work of all the participants.
