Emergency Board Management as a Tool for Strengthening Resilience of the Electric Power Industry: A Case Study in the Czech Republic

Abstract

The study addresses the topic of disasters associated with the electricity sector in relation to strengthening its resilience as one of the basic elements of critical infrastructure. One of the important tools for the management of risks associated with the electricity sector is the activity and functioning of emergency boards, which are used during large-scale disasters. At the emergency board meeting, the current situation and the expected development of the event are assessed, possible solutions are proposed, and decisions are taken to coordinate activities at the strategic management level and to plan the disaster management process. Decision-making processes in the emergency board are often characterized by a high level of uncertainty in the incoming information. The case study and the research conducted are focused on the specific conditions of the Czech Republic. The purpose of the study is to assess the level of development of crisis-management plans with an emphasis on the electricity sector within the individual regions of the Czech Republic as a basic tool to strengthen the resilience of the electricity sector. Furthermore, it was examined whether there are standardized procedures for dealing with individual types of crisis situations and whether they are used as basic methodological support for the emergency board. This part of the investigation focused on a detailed examination of the use of each type of crisis situation in the conditions of the region. For the implementation of the actual investigation, general methods were used—analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, and feedback methods. Furthermore, the questionnaire survey method was used to obtain information from crisis managers at the level of regions in the Czech Republic who are usually members of the emergency board. The sparse-scale evaluation method and Pareto analysis were used to process the information obtained. The survey itself yielded a large amount of interesting information on the level of processing of individual procedures for crisis situations, especially in relation to the electricity sector. Furthermore, the types of individual crisis situations were identified, where the procedures for dealing with them were processed with detailed analysis and details, and, on the contrary, disasters that are processed in a minimalist way.