Engineers from Electricity North West will work with other participants, including the military and government, to test how emergency services are equipped to tackle a major emergency together.

Exercise Triton II – the biggest, major live exercise of its kind ever held in the region, will take place this Thursday (14th July) in the Oldham and Rochdale areas of Greater Manchester.

Engineers will work to protect an electricity substation which supplies power to more than 200,000 customers in the area.

Mandy Ingham, security and resilience manager for Electricity North West, said: “We had firsthand experience of the impact of extreme weather during the winter with Storm Desmond, which caused the loss of power to 55,000 properties in Lancaster, Morecambe and the surrounding area due to severe flooding.

“A month's worth of rain fell in just 24 hours, the highest level of rainfall ever recorded in the UK. Engineers worked around the clock responding to the biggest incident we have ever dealt with.

“This exercise will help us further prepare for such events and as we face more extreme weather we need to prepare by investing in the power network to ensure the lights stay on for our customers.”

Paul Argyle, Chair of Greater Manchester Resilience Forum, said: “Exercises like this are hugely important to ensure – as a region – we are prepared to deal with a real-life major event or disaster, should it occur.

“Police, firefighters and paramedics will work side-by-side with around 33 partner agencies including local councils, utility companies, the military and specialist search and rescue teams to respond to the disaster during that week.

“The scale of the scenario will give these organisations a vital opportunity to practise skills and functions that are rarely used but are necessary in the event of a major incident.”