Abstract
<jats:p>In the Russian Federation, departmental object categorization systems regulated by various federal laws and resolutions of the Government of the Russian Federation generate managerial contradictions: the same object (including electric power facilities — the foundations of the functioning of the economy and life support) may have a high category (danger, safety, significance, negative impact on the environment, etc.) in its departmental hierarchy, but underestimated the actual priority from the point of view of life safety. Consequently, in the first part of the article, a brief overview of accidents and emergencies related to partial restrictions on power consumption (rolling power outages) in the Russian Federation is carried out. In the second part, based on the analysis of the current legislative and regulatory framework of the Russian Federation, the advantages and disadvantages of existing types of categorization in the context of life safety are revealed. In the third part, a formalized model for calculating the integral coefficient of priority for the protection of facilities is proposed, taking into account the number of affected populations, economic damage and cascading effects of the failure of adjacent systems. Data sources and methods for calculating weighting coefficients are defined. A calculated example is given. The proposed model allows for a differentiated approach to assigning priorities for the protection of facilities, taking into account not only departmental affiliation, but also the actual criticality of the facility for the safety of life.</jats:p>