Nordic Pine is yearly NATO exercise on hybrid threats to renewable energy systems.
In September 2022 the NATO exercise Nordic Pine 22 was conducted for the first time in Sweden with particpants from local, regional and private energy companies as well as governmental agencies and corporations (e.g. the Swedish Energy Agency, The Swedish National Grid Agency, the Civil Contingecies Agency, the Defence Research Agency, Vattenfall).
RISE, Research Insitutes of Sweden, has played a key role in developing the exercise. Without RISE there would not have been an exercise, and it is thanks to RISE that VTT in Finland was involved in the exercise. In Nordic Pine 23 RISE will provide resources in many different aspects, not least providing facilities and technology for the Joint Exercise Centre. VTT will provide staff, resources and training site for the Finnish part of the exercise.
The exercise emanates from the NATO science and technology organisation, STO, and a systems analysis study called SAS-163, “Energy security in the era of hybrid threats”, that has been ongoing since 2020. From the 1st of January 2023 the study has continued under the name SAS-183 with the same scope.
Last year the exercise was conducted in Sweden, this year the main focus will be on the Finnish training site but there will be a training site in Sweden and the Joint Exercise Centre will be situated in Sweden as well.
– It is a challenge to exercise on three different sites, but this year we will be able to gather the participants physically on each site. Last year, due to real life crisis developments, we had to conduct the exercises as on online exercise, which was not according to plan. It worked out, but it as a lot better to gather training audiences physically on each site, according to Exercise Director Freddy Jönsson Hanberg, chairman of the board at The Swedish Total Defence Foundation.
The exercise control, “EXCON”, consist of exercise director, site directors, chief JEC and RC:s and evaluators from several organizations, e.g. The Swedish Total Defence Foundation, NATO STO, RISE, VTT. The Training Audience, TA, consist of representatives from municipal, regional and private energy corporations. The Secondary Training Audience, STA, consist of roleplayers from governmental agencies, national authorities and non governmental organizations.
If you are interested in participating in the exercise as TA or STA in Finland, please contact nikolaos.papakonstantinou@vtt.fi
If you are interested in participating in the exercise as TA or STA in Sweden, please contact elisabet.falemo@ri.se
All other questions about the exercise is to be directed to freddy.jonsson.hanberg@totalforsvar.org
Follow the Nordic Pine LinkedIn-site for the latest news: www.linkedin.com/company/nordic-pine-exercise
Media coverage:
https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/natoovning-om-hybridhot-genomford-i-sverige
https://www.di.se/hallbart-naringsliv/svensk-natoovning-avslojar-sakerhetshot-mot-fornybar-energi/