
Czech Republic Hit By Major Power Outage
A major power outage that hit parts of the Czech Republic on Friday, briefly halting underground trains in the capital Prague, was probably the result of a technical outage, with no signs of a cyber or terrorist attack, authorities said.
The incident is likely to add to concerns about the resilience of Europe's power grids and infrastructure after Spain suffered the worst blackout in its history in April and a fire knocked out the power supply to London's Heathrow airport in March.
"Part of the transmission system is without voltage; the event affected also a larger part of transmission system substations," grid operator CEPS said in a statement.
CEPS later said that five out of eight affected substations had resumed operation and the causes of the outage were being investigated.
It affected the Liberec, North-Bohemia, East-Bohemia and Central Bohemia regions, as well as Prague, CEPS said.
Speaking on Czech Television, Interior Minster Vit Rakusan said the authorities had no information to suggest there had been a cyber or terrorist attack.
Czech Transport Minister Martin Kupka said on X trains were halted on a number of lines and five out of 14 regions of the country were affected.
Prague transport company DPP said it had restored operations after underground trains were briefly halted and tram traffic stopped on the right bank of the capital.
Czech media reported a number of people trapped in elevators in parts of Prague and central Bohemia.
E.ON, which operates part of the grid in south and south-eastern Czech Republic, said its supply area was not affected.
Neighbouring Poland's power grid operator also said its systems were unaffected.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


India Today
21 hours ago
- India Today
Thousands hit as Czech see 6-hour blackout due to fallen cable, power nearly back
A power outage in large parts of the Czech Republic, including Prague, trapped people in public transport and lifts and idled factories on Friday after a fallen high-voltage cable disrupted the incident is likely to add to concerns about the resilience of Europe's power infrastructure after Spain suffered the worst blackout in its history in April and a fire knocked out the power supply to London's Heathrow airport in was a massive power outage in part of Prague and in the northern and eastern Czech Republic around 12 pm (1000 GMT) today," the Industry and Trade Ministry said. "The cause was the fall of a power cable, not a cyberattack nor a failure of renewable resources." The outage was nearly fully resolved by 1600 halted international and local trains and public transport in several cities, including Prague, where the underground was briefly shut down and trams were at a halt for hours. About 1,000 mobile phone network stations were affected and ran on backup transmission system operator CEPS declared a nationwide state of emergency after the V411 transmission grid line and Unit 6 of the Ledvice power plant failed. It was not known what caused the power cable to had knock-on effects, overburdening another line and substation, and forcing part of the grid to operate as an island, cut off from other parts of the European Czech Republic has dozens of substations - facilities that convert electricity into different voltages so it can be transmitted throughout the country and distributed had earlier said the fallen line on the 45-kilometre high-voltage line in the northwest of the country had affected eight of these substations and caused blackouts in five of the Czech Republic's 14 fallen line, serving an area with lignite power plants, has been included in a modernisation plan and is due to be doubled in capacity by Ledvice 6 power plant, which was also affected, is a 660-megawatt, coal-fired plant built in 2017 and operated by CEZ. CEZ did not comment on the RESTOREDAll affected substations had power back before 1300 GMT, CEPS said, but distribution companies were working for more hours to restore supplies to Minister Petr Fiala told a briefing that about 2,000 customers remained without power just before 1600 GMT. He said around half a million had been affected the country, the outage caused 215 incidents involving people trapped in elevators, fire brigade spokesperson Lucie Pipis told Reuters, adding everyone had been prison authority said 13 prisons had lost power, but that security had not been compromised. Three large hospitals in Prague temporarily ran on backup Unipetrol's Czech refinery and chemical plant at Litvinov went into emergency shutdown, the company said on power supplies resumed, it began restarting operations, but said the process would take several days.- EndsMust Watch


Mint
a day ago
- Mint
Czech Republic Recovering From Blackout After Grid Issue
(Bloomberg) -- The Czech Republic is slowly recovering from widespread power outages that halted public transport and businesses in several parts of the country after a fault on the transmission grid. Underground trains and some tram lines in Prague have resumed service after central and northern areas were without electricity on Friday morning, CTK news service reported. Electricity distributor PRE Group said it expected to reconnect supplies to affected parts of the city by around 4 p.m. local time. It's the second major outage in Europe this year following a voltage issue on Spain's power network in April that caused a blackout for more than 50 million people on the Iberian Peninsula. It's taken months for the investigations to be carried out into what happened in Spain and it still hasn't been decided who is to blame. A second event so soon after, raises serious questions for operators about how resilient Europe's power system is. The grid operator said it didn't know what had caused the incident, CTK reported. Police wrote on X there were no indications that a terrorist or cyber attack was behind the blackout. The Czech outage occurred in 8 out of the country's 44 main substations, of which five are now back online, CTK reported, citing national grid operator CEPS. Substations contain the equipment that connects the high voltage transmission grid with the distribution grid so it can carry power to homes and businesses. Prague's airport wasn't affected, nor were most banking systems or mobile phone networks, according to CTK. --With assistance from Peter Laca. More stories like this are available on


NDTV
a day ago
- NDTV
Czech Republic Hit By Major Power Outage
Prague: A major power outage that hit parts of the Czech Republic on Friday, briefly halting underground trains in the capital Prague, was probably the result of a technical outage, with no signs of a cyber or terrorist attack, authorities said. The incident is likely to add to concerns about the resilience of Europe's power grids and infrastructure after Spain suffered the worst blackout in its history in April and a fire knocked out the power supply to London's Heathrow airport in March. "Part of the transmission system is without voltage; the event affected also a larger part of transmission system substations," grid operator CEPS said in a statement. CEPS later said that five out of eight affected substations had resumed operation and the causes of the outage were being investigated. It affected the Liberec, North-Bohemia, East-Bohemia and Central Bohemia regions, as well as Prague, CEPS said. Speaking on Czech Television, Interior Minster Vit Rakusan said the authorities had no information to suggest there had been a cyber or terrorist attack. Czech Transport Minister Martin Kupka said on X trains were halted on a number of lines and five out of 14 regions of the country were affected. Prague transport company DPP said it had restored operations after underground trains were briefly halted and tram traffic stopped on the right bank of the capital. Czech media reported a number of people trapped in elevators in parts of Prague and central Bohemia. which operates part of the grid in south and south-eastern Czech Republic, said its supply area was not affected. Neighbouring Poland's power grid operator also said its systems were unaffected.