NATO ENSEC COE and JRC held the main planning conference for the flagship Tabletop exercise Coherent Resilience 2019

NATO Energy Security Centre of Excellence and the Joint Research Centre (JRC) held the main planning conference for a joint tabletop exercise Coherent Resilience 2019 (CORE19). The conference was held in Riga, Latvia and it was hosted by Conexus Baltic Grid on 26–28th of March. The event was welcomed by Ms. Zane Kotāne, CEO of Conexus Baltic Grid. In her opening speech, Ms. Kotāne noted how market openness and interconnectivity have changed the gas sector in the Baltic States. She stressed that security concerns should not be put aside even in the new market environment, but questions related to the sense of security, protection from cyber threats and climate change must remain vital in discussions and actions among the gas market participants. The Director of NATO ENSEC COE, Col Romualdas Petkevicius, was among the conference attendees. He reminded the participants on the importance of practicing together. According to Col Petkevicius, the strong civilian representation at the conference will benefit the military preparedness as the critical energy infrastructure is civilian operated and owned.

The conference in Riga was attended by more than 25 participants from the Baltic Sea region countries and their neighbours. The participants represented the main stakeholders: government officials, gas transmission system operators, and crisis management experts. During the conference, the participants finalized the scenario building for the TTX CORE19. In addition, the participants reviewed and developed vignettes and injects in a separate workshop. These will complement the future exercise. At the end of the conference the participants had the opportunity to visit Inčukalns underground gas storage. Site visit was guided by specialists who explained how the only gas storage in the Baltic States is working and what are its capabilities or limitations.

The CORE19 tabletop exercise is planned to be held in Vilnius, Lithuania on May 14-16 and will constitute as part of the efforts aimed at increasing the resilience of gas supply in the Baltic States by testing the legal framework emergency supply procedures and solidarity measures foreseen by the EU Regulation 2017/1938 on security of gas supply. In addition, the CORE19 tabletop exercise will provide a platform for testing preparedness for cyber-attacks and strategic crisis communication.