The crisis stores project aims to improve access to food, essentials, and medicinal products for the population, and to ensure the functioning of some ATMs during extensive power cuts and other types of crises.
The Estonian Stockpiling Agency will enter into a contract with the successful stores that meet the conditions of the tender and will provide an electricity generator with sufficient capacity to ensure the autonomous operation of the store systems and payment options. It will be the responsibility of the crisis stores to adapt the electrical system of the building to use the generator and to keep the store open during a crisis.
According to Priit Ploompuu, a member of the Management Board of the Estonian Stockpiling Agency, the locations of the crisis stores have been chosen taking into account geographical dispersion and population density.
‘There will be more and larger crisis stores in cities, but no region of Estonia will be left uncovered. As a minimum requirement, stores in the network must be open five hours a day and stock a range of the most common foodstuffs and essentials during a crisis. If an ATM and a pharmacy are located in the same building as the store, their essential electricity needs should also be covered by the generator power where possible.
The capacity of the generators provided by the ESPA to the stores ranges from 80 to 250 kVA, the larger ones allowing even very large shops to continue functioning. In addition, ESPA will take care of the maintenance of the generators and, if requested, broker the service of supplying the stores with liquid fuel for the generators,’ explained Ploompuu.
The procurement is open until 2 September and to all businesses with stores located in the specified areas, with a commercial space in the required size range, and with the capacity to continue operating in the event of a crisis.
‘I very much hope that there will be plenty of interest in the crisis stores project and that merchants will see it as an opportunity to improve their business continuity in cooperation with the state. With the next phases of the project, new regions will be added and the store managers who were not included in the first round will have the opportunity to apply in the future,’ added Priit Ploompuu, a member of the Management Board of ESPA.
After the electricity systems have been adapted, the first few dozen stores will receive the backup generators by the end of this year. All the stores that are successful in the first phase of the procurement will be obliged to install a generator connection point within 18 months. Setting up a network of 110 crisis stores covering all of Estonia will cost the ESPA approximately 4–5 million euros, of which the largest cost will be for the purchase and maintenance of the generators. Other associated costs will be borne by the store owners.
The network of crisis stores is being established by the Ministry of Regional Affairs and Agriculture, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, and the Estonian Stockpiling Agency in cooperation with merchants.
