Long-term power outage and preparedness of the population of a region in the Czech Republic - A case study

sustainability Article Long-Term Power Outage and Preparedness of the Population of a Region in the Czech Republic—A Case Study Štˇepán Kavan 1,* , Olga Dvoˇráˇcková1, JiˇríPokorný2and Lenka Brumarová2   Citation: Kavan, Š.; Dvoˇráˇcková, O.; Pokorný, J.; Brumarová, L. Long-Term Power Outage and Preparedness of the Population of a Region in the Czech Republic—A Case Study. Sustainability 2021,13, 13142. https:// doi.org/10.3390/su132313142 Academic Editor: Gianpiero Greco Received: 10 November 2021 Accepted: 26 November 2021 Published: 27 November 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1Faculty of Health and Social Studies, University of South Bohemia in Ceske Budejovice, 370 11 Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic; [email protected] 2Faculty of Safety Engineering, VSB-Technical University of Ostrava, 700 30 Ostrava, Czech Republic; [email protected] (J.P.); lenka.brumar[email protected] (L.B.) *Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +420-724-178-999 Abstract: The power outages that have occurred in recent years around the world point to widespread problems with consequences for the lives and health of the population, but also material damage. This is a case study that focuses on the evaluation of the preparedness of the population of a selected region in the Czech Republic for a long-term power outage. This article deals with a case study that focuses on the evaluation of the preparedness of the population of the Karlovy Vary region in the field of emergency survival. Part of the study is the evaluation of the respondents’ answers, which provides an overview of the actual state of preparedness for power outages on a sample group of respondents in the Karlovy Vary region. The research method used was a survey using questionnaires. The obtained information was subsequently statistically evaluated by nonparametric correlation using Kendall’s tau b . From the presented results of the survey, it is clear that the inhabitants of smaller municipalities are better prepared for a power outage and can create basic conditions for emergency survival. Keywords: long-term power outage; security; emergency survival; civil protection; population readiness 1. Introduction We are exposed to many security risks in our daily lives. Some of them are visible at first glance, but there are also those that are hidden and can significantly compromise security. Extensive outages of energy sources, especially oil and electricity, are also a significant risk. Large-scale power outages can significantly affect the society and economy of any state and have an impact on life. Electricity is currently one of the most important types of energy. It can be relatively easily converted into kinetic, thermal, light energy and transmitted over long distances. Modern human society is dependent on electricity supplies. A long-term outage can be a major danger to modern civilization. The electricity system is a nationwide area system with a high degree of connection to the electricity systems of neighboring countries. It is very sensitive to the proper functions and required interactions of its individual elements. These elements are closely related and they also interact with each other. (I) If the cause of the supply disruption were only a local failure (loss of a few elements or substations), the outage would be short-term and the restoration of power to end customers would be possible in minutes to hours. (II) If there is a system-wide disproportion between electricity production and consumption or a supply outage caused by an overload, frequency, or voltage collapse, the outage can be considered medium-term with a system recovery time of several hours to tens of hours. (III) If an outage is caused by extreme natural causes or a huge terrorist attack that would damage a large part of the critical infrastructure, the resumption of energy supply could take several days or even weeks. Sustainability 2021,13, 13142. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132313142 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability Sustainability 2021,13, 13142 2 of 14 Long-term power outages are the object of many studies in the field of electricity. From the point of view of security studies and social sciences, this is a relatively new phenomenon. The danger of large-scale power outages was examined mainly from a technical point of view when suitable technical and engineering solutions on how to prevent this phenomenon were sought. The focus was also on how to minimize the consequences of a possible large-scale outage to cause as little damage as possible. Despite all efforts to design safer systems, we are still witnessing major large-scale accidents [ 1 – 3 ]. The socio-technical risk management system is addressed, which includes several levels from legislators, managers, work planners, and system operators [ 4 ]. But how is society at the population level prepared for a long-term power outage? This text deals with the issue of preparedness of the population in the case of a major power outage, which can have serious negative consequences. The goal of the paper is to examine the readiness of the population regarding emergency survival in the event of a long-term power outage in the Karlovy Vary region in the Czech Republic. The study contains its own limitations and does not address the technical aspects of disruption or ensuring the safety and reliability of the electricity system and the regulation of electricity consumption. It also does not examine possible economic impacts. The study does not focus on the evaluation of technical and manipulation readiness of the transmission system for possible long-term power outages, backup by alternative sources, or solutions for priority supply of strategically important entities such as critical infrastructure elements. According to the authors’ survey, the evaluation of the population’s readiness for a long-term power outage has not been published in the international environment. Available literature sources mainly focus on the stability of electricity supply, load in the distribution network, and manipulation in the transmission system [ 5 – 10 ]. Other authors focus more on possible causes, disaster prevention, health issues [ 11 – 15 ], resilience, optimization, and risk management in society - with regard to possible social and economic impacts [ 16 – 20 ]. Another view of the issue is the education and training of the population and selected civic associations [ 21 , 22 ]. Other authors address the topic in terms of vulnerability analysis, cultural aspects and warnings [ 23 – 25 ], damage modeling for strengthening the resilience of energy distribution systems, and planning [ 2 , 26 – 28 ]. However, research results of the level of population readiness for the consequences of a long-term power outage have not been published in the available literature. The power outages that have occurred in recent years around the world [ 29 ] point to widespread consequences for the lives and health of the population, but also to material damage to properties. An overview of selected power outages is shown in Table 1. Table 1. Selected examples of power outages in the world. Date of Power Outage Country Cause Population without Electricity (in Millions) 31 March 2015 Turkey Decommission of two power plants and simultaneous maintenance on transmission lines (not confirmed) 70 26 October 2012 Brazil Fire in the substation 53 30–31 July 2012 India Deficit between production and dynamically increasing consumption (line overload), which was exacerbated by unfavourable climatic conditions 670 8 September 2011 USA a Mexico Operator error and subsequent failure of very high voltage lines 3 11 March 2011 Japan Decommission of nuclear power plants, after being damaged by a tsunami caused by an earthquake 4.4 28 January 2008 China A snowstorm destroyed a very high voltage line 30 11 November 2009 Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay Short circuit of 3 transformers due to heavy rains 60 18 August 2005 Indonesia (islands Java and Bali) Multiple failures of the power system which knocked out 2700 MW of power 100 27–28 September 2003 Italy (except Sardinia) Storm 56 14 August 2003 USA and Canada A short circuit caused by tree branches and consequent wrong fix of initiation faults 50 20 February–27 March 1998 New Zealand Repeated faults on high voltage cables n/a Sustainability 2021,13, 13142 3 of 14 Population readiness to deal with emergencies and crises, and thus a long-term power outage, is a matter of civil protection by issuing emergency survival measures [ 30 , 31 ]. Civil protection in the Czech Republic is characterized as a set of activities and procedures of competent authorities and other interested bodies, organizations, units, and the population. It aims at minimizing the negative impacts of possible emergencies and crisis situations on human health and lives and living conditions. Emergency survival can be characterized as a temporary way of population survival that has been affected by the consequences of emergencies or crisis situations. It includes measures for emergency accommodation, food, drinking water and energy supply, and the organization of humanitarian aid [32]. The study focuses on the evaluation of the obtained results of a survey aimed at determining the readiness of the population in the field of emergency survival in a situation of a long-term power outage. The article evaluates the answers of the respondents and thus provides an overview of the actual current state of preparedness on a sample group of respondents in the Karlovy Vary region. The hypothesis is formulated as a process of creating orderly knowledge that is based on systematic research. Specifically, the following hypothesis was formulated: H1 Residents of smaller municipalities are better prepared to cope with the consequences of a long-term power outage than residents of urban areas. The text of the article is structured into individual chapters. The introduction presents the issue of power outages, the aim of the work and the hypothesis. The chapter “Material and methods” focuses on the introduction of research methodology and specification of the topic in relation to crisis management. The next chapter focuses on the presentation of the obtained results. The chapter “Discussion and conclusions” reflects the results of the survey. 2. Materials and Methods To achieve the goal, the authors prepared a research project in the preparatory phase, which was based on empirical preliminary research. Preliminary research is based on a set of classified knowledge on population preparedness for long-term power outages. It also serves as a process of generating knowledge according to certain methodological rules [ 33 , 34 ]. The research project is based on the preparatory part—pre-research. This is a survey on a small sample of respondents to verify that the questionnaire is understandable. Subsequently, the comments were incorporated so that the interview could be conducted in full comprehensibility. We used the applied research method, where issues of practical importance were addressed and specific problems in the field of population preparedness were examined. The performed quantitative research was focused on a certain element in natural conditions, which was population readiness for the possible effects of a long-term power outage, and on trying to understand it and create a comprehensive picture of it if possible. 2.1. Methods The main method of the research was a survey in the form of a questionnaire, which was used to obtain information from the inhabitants of the Karlovy Vary region. The questionnaire can be considered as one of the most widespread research techniques. The advantage of the questionnaire is easy and fast administration and the possibility of personal anonymity. The disadvantage can be seen in the formulation of questions, which may not be suitable for everyone. Another disadvantage is a certain subjectivity of the statements. The questionnaire was used to determine the readiness and awareness of individual respondents. The study was conducted in accordance with the ethical approach of conducting a survey. The research was based on informed consent. Respondents participated in the study only if they agreed. They were fully informed in advance about the course and circumstances of the research. Respondents were aware of their freedom to withdraw from the research without consequences. The protection of the participants’ interests ensured Sustainability 2021,13, 13142 4 of 14 future anonymity and confidentiality—the protection of identity. The authors informed the respondents about the objectives of the survey. This empirical research is based on a systematic examination of social phenomena in order to obtain knowledge that describes and explains the population preparedness regarding emergency survival during long-term power outages in the Karlovy Vary region in the Czech Republic. The research was carried out and is described so as to ensure repeatable and verifiable investigations. Two basic steps were taken in the research process: • exploration; data collection was performed to determine the nature of selected phenomena and relationships in terms of population preparedness for the consequences of long-term power outages; it is an inductive process; • demonstration; to demonstrate or support the validity of some hypotheses on the basis of the obtained data. A standardized questionnaire with a fixed structure was used to examine population readiness for a long-term power outage. The questionnaire had a specific set of written questions. They were closed questions, i.e., yes or no questions, dichotomous questions (several possibilities), or one question with one or more answers (disjunctive and conjunctive, or enumerated with order). In open questions, they had the possibility of supplementing their own written answers. The selection of respondents was performed as: •intentional—the sample group responded with the research goal; •based on the willingness to participate in the research. The respondents were addressed by the Fire and Rescue Service of the Karlovy Vary region in cooperation with the Karlovy Vary region in November 2018. The goal was to obtain information on ensuring the basic needs of the population in the event of a long-term power outage. The actual set of questions of the questionnaire was accessible via a web link where the questionnaire was published. The conditions for completing the questionnaire were being over 18 years old and long-term residence in the Karlovy Vary region. The link to the website with the questionnaire was disseminated using official press releases and links on social networks. Residents of the Karlovy Vary region were asked to fill in the questionnaire so that the crisis management authorities could obtain an overview of the basic possibilities, supplies, and needs in the event of a long-term power outage. The survey was closed after two months in January 2019. The survey included 1855 respondents (out of a total of 236,241 long-term residents in the Karlovy Vary region; 0.8%). The survey was conducted in the Karlovy Vary region, which is located in the west of the Czech Republic. There are a total of 134 municipalities, which are further divided into 527 parts. Its area of 3310 km 2 makes the Karlovy Vary region one of the smallest in the country. It occupies only 4.2% of the total area of the Czech Republic. As of 31 December 2018, a total of 236,241 inhabitants lived in the municipalities of the Karlovy Vary region, which represents 2.8% of the population of the Czech Republic. The Karlovy Vary region is famous mainly for its spas. The most famous spas in the Czech Republic are Karlovy Vary, MariánskéLáznˇe, Františkovy Láznˇe, Kynžvart, and Jáchymov. The survey stated that the study works with a two or more-day power outage. In the event of a major accident, the real possibilities of the system operators may not be able to ensure immediate operation resumption. They also may require the system to be shut down, which would cause a crisis situation in the supply of electricity to customers. Such an emergency can create an increased risk of secondary crises and pose a significant threat to lives, health, property, and the environment. An authorized body may declare one of the crisis situations and state administration bodies may implement crisis measures with the help of the integrated rescue system. We used statistics to evaluate the obtained information. This can be characterized as a discipline that obtains information from numerical data. It helps in the preparation and implementation of research and in the evaluation of the results obtained. Statistics provide the means to work with the results to understand a particular problem. The statistical procedure was implemented in three basic parts [35]: Sustainability 2021,13, 13142 5 of 14 •data acquisition using a questionnaire; • data analysis, organization of information and numerical summaries and other mathematical resources; • statistical evaluation/interference, information summary, acquisition and interpretation of phenomena, conclusions about the obtained results. The method of a statistical survey as a form of quantitative research focuses on and assesses statistical variability and interdependences of variables. The statistical survey was used to obtain structured data, which are then interpreted using the deductive approach. The chosen form of survey was used to assess the information from a selected sample group of the population in the Czech Republic. The monitoring unit (respondent) was one representative of a household. Due to the nature of the research, a descriptive survey was used, which focuses on (and is thus limited) the statistical description of data obtained by assessing the respondents’ answers. The procedure can be described as a cross-sectional survey because the collection of data was carried out in one specific time interval. Respondents were asked about the data that were related to the present or recent past, such as alternative sources or supplies of water, food, or medicine. The use of a structured questionnaire enabled the authors of the study to maintain a fixed order and form of answers for effective statistical processing. The disadvantage of a firmly structured questionnaire is the comprehensibility of the questions, which may limit the reliability. Based on this fact, a preliminary survey was prepared first. In this phase, the pilot questionnaire was filled in by 50 respondents (who provided feedback and evaluation of the wording of the questions). Subsequently, the questions were modified in order to achieve a correct understanding of the questions. The statistical survey was performed in IBM SPSS 24.0 program (Statistics is the world’s leading statistical software used to solve business and research problems by means of ad-hoc analysis, hypothesis testing, and predictive analytics.) using Kendall’s rank correlation coefficient tau b (Kendall’s coefficient of concordance), which is a nonparametric variant of Pearson’s correlation coefficient. The Kendall’s test makes no assumptions about the nature of variables’ distribution. A p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. 2.2. Long-Term Power Outage and Crisis Management The electricity system is a nationwide area system with a high degree of connection to the electricity systems of neighboring states. It is very sensitive to the proper function and required interaction of its individual elements, which are closely related and interact with each other. As electricity cannot be stored in significant quantities, the balance between production and consumption must be maintained at all times. The electricity system must continuously ensure a balance with the changing magnitude of consumption and production of electricity. This balance is ensured by the electricity market and transmission system operators. There are events that, depending on their severity, the extent of the affected area and the frequency of occurrence, can cause damage or loss of function of one or more elements and lead to accidents of a regional or national nature, which in extreme cases can affect the system of continuous interconnection. If the cause of the outage is only a local failure (loss of a few elements or substations), it would be a short-term outage and the restoration of power would be possible in minutes to hours. In this case, it would most likely be a local outage in a part of a city or territory, and, in most cases, it would not be necessary to take crisis measures according to the Crisis Management Act [ 36 ]. The system-wide disproportion between electricity production and consumption, or a supply outage caused by overload, frequency, or voltage collapse, can, in most cases, be considered a medium-term outage with a system recovery time of hours to tens of hours. On the contrary, decommissioning, i.e., damage to a large part of critical infrastructure by extreme natural events or as a result of a huge terrorist attack could mean a resumption of supply lasting several days to weeks (until a replacement solution is implemented, which may include the construction of a replacement line at the site of damage or transport and installation of reserve transformers in affected substations). Sustainability 2021,13, 13142 6 of 14 The speed of the resumption of electricity supplies also depends on the cause. If there is extensive physical damage to the infrastructure, the recovery time will be proportional to the extent of the damage (days to weeks in the event of war or planetary disasters). If the entire transmission system, part of it, or a significant area of the electricity system finds itself without voltage, a so-called blackout occurs, which means a large-scale disruption of electricity supply for a large number of customers. European legislation defines a blackout as follows [37]: The transmission system is in a blackout state if at least one of the following criteria is met: • more than 50% of customers were lost in the regulatory area of the given transmission system operator; • there is a complete lack of voltage in the regulatory area of the transmission system operator for at least three minutes, which leads to the start of the recovery plan. The cause can be a significant outage of transmission and production equipment, which leads to a subsequent frequency collapse. If such a situation arose, it would be necessary to declare a state of crisis and implement crisis measures and state of emergency in the electricity sector according to the Energy Act [ 38 ] on business conditions and the performance of state administration in energy sectors and amendments of certain laws. In the Czech Republic, it is possible to declare one of four critical situations to deal with large-scale emergencies—a state of danger, a state of emergency, a state of threat to the state, and a state of war [ 39 , 40 ]. Since 2001, when the new crisis legislation came into force in the Czech Republic, a state of danger has been declared in 13 cases and a state of emergency in 6 cases. The state of threat to the state and the state of war have not been declared during this period. An overview of declared crisis situations and the reason for the declaration is given in Table 2. It can be assumed that in the event of a long-term power outage, one of the critical situations would be declared, and it would probably be an emergency situation. Table 2. Overview of declared critical situations in the Czech Republic [41]. Year Critical Situation Reason for Declaring 2002 Danger Flood 2002 Emergency Flood 2004 Danger Landslide 2004 Danger Elimination of the consequences of a natural disaster 2005 Danger Waterworks failure 2006 Danger Flood 2006 Emergency Flood 2006 Danger Landslide 2006 Danger Dangerous substances 2007 Emergency Hurricane Kyrill 2009 Danger Flood 2010 Danger Flood 2013 Danger Flood 2013 Emergency Flood 2014 Danger Landslip 2016 Danger Illegal storage of dangerous substances 2017 Danger African pig plague 2020 Emergency Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (March, April) 2020/2021 Emergency Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (October 2020–February 2021) 3. Results The anticipated secondary events that may occur as a result of a long-term power outage and events that may occur independently or cumulatively and affect the solution of the situation can include (authors’ own reflection): •disruption of the supply of crude oil and petroleum products; Sustainability 2021,13, 13142 7 of 14 •disruption of large-scale gas supplies; •disruption of large-scale food supplies; •disruption of large-scale drinking water supplies; •disruption of the functionality of important electronic communications systems; •large-scale breaches of legality; •disruption of heat supplies; •traffic disruptions (traffic signals, rail transport, airport operations); •unavailability of information and communication systems. These secondary events would have an impact on population survival. Therefore, the population was surveyed for readiness, material self-sufficiency, and knowledge of possible procedures in the event of a long-term power outage. Impacts on the population are the objective of this research and the survey. Each respondent represented one household. Their answers are shown in Table 3. It is obvious that the individual surveyed categories are represented relatively equally. The lowest frequency (5% or less) was recorded for “one-person household”, “medicine supply for less than a week”, and “ownership of an electrical medical device”. Due to the large sample size, only the least represented issue of medical devices was not included in further analyses. Table 3. Answer percentage in the survey (n= 1855). Question Answers Frequency Percentage Size of municipality up to 1000 people 445 24.0% from 1001 to 10,000 people 631 34.0% over 10,000 people 779 42.0% Housing family house 770 41.5% residential building 433 23.3% prefabricated apartment building 652 35.1% Number of household members 1 122 6.6% 2 503 27.1% 3 529 28.5% 4 and more 701 37.8% Heating independent of electricity no 1143 61.6% yes 712 38.4% Water supply/own well n/a 978 52.7% 1–2 days 553 29.8% 3–5 days 191 10.3% more than 5 days 133 7.2% Food supply n/a 309 16.7% 1–2 days 874 47.1% 3–5 days 461 24.9% more than days 5 211 11.4% Medicine supply less than 1 week 70 3.8% 1 week 146 7.9% more than 1 week 644 34.7% I do not use 995 53.6% Cash no 567 30.6% yes 1288 69.4% Battery-operated radio/car radio no 543 29.3% yes 1312 70.7% Backup power supply no 1679 90.5% yes 176 9.5% Cottage without electricity no 1051 56.7% yes 804 43.3% Medical electrical appliances no 1841 99.2% yes 14 0.8% Sustainability 2021,13, 13142 8 of 14 Due to the ordinal nature of the data and the limited range of used scales, the Kendall’s nonparametric correlation coefficient tau b was used to evaluate the relationships. The results are shown in Tables 4and 5. In Tables 4and 5, the variables are sorted according to the decreasing relation to the size of residence. Correlation coefficients are stated above the diagonal. Below the diagonal, the p-values are presented. Statistically significant results are shown in bold. Table 4. Evaluation of nonparametric correlation of selected characteristics (I) using the Kendall’s taub(n= 1855). Size of Municipality Housing Number of Household Members Size of municipality 0.370 –0.176 Housing <0.001 –0.231 Number of household members <0.001 <0.001 Table 5. Evaluation of nonparametric correlation of selected characteristics (II) using the Kendall’s taub(n= 1855). Size of Municipality Heating Independent of Electricity Water Supply/Own Well Backup Power Supply Food Supply Battery-Operated Radio/Car Radio Cash Cottage without Electricity Medicine Supply Size of municipality –0.281 –0.182 –0.099 –0.071 –0.069 –0.066 –0.009 0.007 Heating independent of electricity <0.001 0.153 0.142 0.116 0.198 0.083 0.039 0.009 Water supply/own well <0.001 <0.001 0.186 0.313 0.150 0.171 0.102 0.056 Backup power supply <0.001 <0.001 <0.001 0.116 0.119 0.091 0.066 0.041 Food supply <0.001 <0.001 <0.001 <0.001 0.121 0.148 0.076 0.145 Battery-operated radio/car radio 0.002 <0.001 <0.001 <0.001 <0.001 0.152 0.116 0.042 Cash 0.003 <0.001 <0.001 <0.001 <0.001 <0.001 0.129 0.060 Cottage without electricity 0.666 0.094 <0.001 0.005 <0.001 <0.001 <0.001 –0.025 Medicine supply * 0.812 0.786 0.070 0.218 <0.001 0.208 0.071 0.456 * The number of observations is limited to 860, the category “I do not use medicaments” is excluded. The presented results show that the size of the municipality, the type of housing, and the number of people in the household are significantly related (p< 0.001). With the increasing size of the residence/municipality, the share of residential and prefabricated apartment buildings increases (Kendall’s tau b = 0.370), and the number of people in households decreases (taub= –0.176). The smaller number of people in a common household is also related to the growing proportion of residential and prefabricated apartment buildings (taub= –0.231). The presented results clearly show that the dependence of respondents on external electricity supplies (tau b = − 0.281), emergency water supply (tau b = − 0.182), food availability (tau b = − 0.071), etc., grow with the growing size of a municipality. Cottage ownership and the availability of medicaments are not related to the size of the municipality. It is obvious that the individual studied areas are positively correlated, e.g., higher availability of durable food is connected with heating independent of electricity, availability of own drinking water, backup power supply, battery-operated radio/car radio, cash, and cottage Sustainability 2021,13, 13142 9 of 14 ownership. In the case of the supply of medicaments, only the relationship to the availability of food was found—greater availability of medicaments is related to higher availability of durable foods and vice versa. 4. Discussion This research was carried out as a systematic study of social phenomena in order to obtain knowledge that describes and explains the current preparedness of the population for the consequences of long-term power outages [ 42 ]. The research included a systematic process of collecting information, synthesizing existing knowledge, and achieving an increase in knowledge [ 43 ]. The goal was to obtain a unified view of the subject of the study —the readiness of the population of the selected region in the Czech Republic for a long-term power outage. On the one hand, the goal was to isolate individual topics of security issues—civil protection. On the other hand, the individual areas were studied in the context of social areas, i.e., regarding the population. The presented results of the survey show that residents in smaller municipalities are less dependent on electricity supplies and, in the event of a supply outage, can create basic conditions for emergency survival. On the contrary, the assumption that the inhabitants of larger municipalities and especially cities were dependent on external assistance was confirmed. In the preparation of this study, we reflected the idea that the population of smaller municipalities (especially in the agricultural countryside) had already lost the ability to be partially self-sufficient. However, the results of the study have shown that the inhabitants of smaller municipalities still have the possibility of an emergency supply of drinking water, their own stored food, and can use solid fuel stoves regardless of electricity supply. The results of the questionnaire survey show that, in terms of basic security of water supplies or own wells, more than half of the respondents (52.7%) are not secured for possible disruption of water supplies. On the other hand, the results of the survey show information for crisis management authorities. 47.3% of respondents have at least a minimum supply of drinking water. The majority of respondents (83.3%) have food supplies for at least one to two days. The question about the battery-operated radio or car radio aimed at the possibilities of emergency transmission of information after the failure of the backed-up warning network (regular session at a certain time). 70.7% of the population had this option. Crisis management authorities can build their disaster preparedness and planning documents using this information. In the event of a long-term interruption of electricity supply, the basic social impacts (A) and the impacts on people’s lives and health (B) can be characterized. The preparedness of the population and crisis management bodies must aim at minimizing the negative consequences. (A) Social impacts (authors’ own reflection) •the risk of very serious social and health impacts on the daily life of the population; • the risk of a rapid rise in unemployment due to the forced reduction of economic activities, reduction of capacity, and significant economic losses of economic operators; • the risk of limiting or impossibility of providing basic social services to the population; • the risk of a significant decline in the living standards of the population as a result of a probable economic shock (property damage, loss of employment, inflation, etc.); •the risk of serious disturbance of public order and security. (B) Impacts on people’s lives and health (authors’ own reflection) • direct threat to the life and health of the operating personnel of electricity production plants ; • direct danger to the life and health of workers liquidating the consequences of the electricity system damage; • direct threat to the life and health of the population as a result of a radiation accident, explosion, or fire;