Natural Gas Crisis in Serbia Tests Crisis Response Systems

Tuesday, 06 January 2009 14:39

On January 6, 2009, the ongoing Russia-Ukraine natural gas dispute resulted in the temporary cessation of all gas deliveries to Serbia from Russia.  At the time, the country was experiencing its coldest weather of the season.  The combination of the two events triggered an emergency situation in those parts of the country that rely heavily on natural gas for heating.

The Serbian Government reacted quickly.  At an emergency meeting, on January 6, 2009 the Government formed a Crisis Committee to deal with the emergency and a number of measures were taken to mitigate the effects of the gas crisis:

•    The Oil Industry of Serbia (“NIS”) provided an additional supply of heavy oil – an alternative heating source to natural gas – for those that had the capacity to switch between gas and oil for heating;

•    The Electric Power Industry of Serbia (“JP Elektroprivreda Srbije”) purchased additional electricity from abroad (as many affected citizens were switching to electric space heaters as their primary heating source); and,

•    The Serbian Government appealed to citizens to reduce electricity consumption in order to alleviate pressure on the country’s electric power grid.

Municipal Response Runs Hot and Cold

At the local level, numerous municipalities were affected by the crisis. The most affected were those where the local heating plants did not possess the capacity to switch over from natural gas to heavy oil.  Municipal governments’ response to the crisis varied considerably. As expected Novi Sad and Belgrade, the two largest affected cities with the most resources, demonstrated a sophisticated level of coordination in responding to the crisis. Other cities and municipalities with fewer resources and alternatives fared much worse.

Following the crisis, the program looked at how well PPES program municipalities had handled the crisis compared with those that are not in the program (along with those that had joined so recently that they had not had the opportunity yet to adopt the program’s crisis management recommendations). The experience of 27 municipalities was examined.  The assessment controlled for relative impact of the crisis on the community (by considering, for example: whether the entire town/city was affected or just local industry; the percentage of households affected; and, whether the municipality lacked alternative sources of heating). The assessment looked specifically at: a) whether a Crisis Team / Crisis Committee was formed; b) whether the team took a leading role in managing crisis at the local level; and c) whether the team was communicating effectively and regularly with the public or not.

The survey team concluded that PPES municipalities with an established Standing Body for Disaster Management showed a superior level of coordination of local stakeholders and, overall, did a better job of responding to the crisis.  The most likely explanation for this is that the Standing Bodies gave mayors an immediately accessible forum for implementing policy and disseminating information, thus shortening response time and contributing to an overall more effective response.  In the area of citizen information and outreach alone, PPES municipalities with Standing Bodies were able to get information out to its citizens faster and the information dissemination effort was more highly coordinated than in other municipalities.

Indjija’s Disaster Management Team Talks the Talk

According to Mr. Milovan Bogovac, from Indija and a Preparedness and Planning Team trainee, their own Crisis Team communicated with the public regularly and through a variety of channels.  It helped that an earlier decision had been made by the municipality to seat a permanent member of the Crisis Response Team from local media (Radio Indjija). In addition, Indjija’s Call Center, which normally operates during regular business hours, remained open 24/7 throughout the crises to provide up to the minute information to citizens who called in for guidance. As Mr. Bogovac stated, “Public communication has been dramatically improved in the last two years and the work of the Crisis Team was highly appreciated among citizens in Indjija, during the natural gas crisis,” based on feedback that the team has received since.