Crisis Management

Emergency response drills

In September TenneT participated in an exercise with the Royal Netherlands Army (National Reserves Battalion) involving simulated break-ins at a power station adjacent to an important high-voltage substation. As a result, the energy producer, TenneT and the regional grid operator all had a role to play in the crisis organisation. TenneT was particularly keen to use the exercise to test the quality of communication with the other parties.

In November the crisis team was involved in a major exercise simulating storm damage to a number of high-voltage pylons. To add to the complexity of the situation, the exercise also included a simulated goods train derailment near TenneT's head office. The exercise demonstrated that evacuation of the head office presented no problems. The appraisal of the situation in respect of shutting down part of the grid went according to plan, as did communication with the internal and external parties involved. The system of alerting and mobilising the crisis organisation also worked well.

To check coordination with other crisis organisations in the event of a flood, in November TenneT participated in a national flood exercise, in which the high-voltage substation at Lelystad was flooded. The exercise demonstrated that flooding causes the low-voltage grids to fail first, as was already known. This means that some regional areas would be without power, but the national high-voltage grid can withstand considerable flooding.

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