Extreme Weather Causes Energy Emergency in Central Slovakia

Povazska Bystrica, 20 July (TASR) - Extreme weather on Sunday (19 July) caused a major power outage across central Slovakia, leaving more than 20,000 households without electricity over the past 24 hours, spokesman for power utility Stredoslovenska Distribucna (SSD) Miroslav Gejdos told TASR on Monday, adding that the worst-affected district is Povazska Bystrica (Trencin region). "Sunday's severe weather in central Slovakia resulted in widespread power cuts. Its impact exceeded the level of an energy emergency. This means that more than 20,000 customers were left without electricity for longer than three minutes over a 24-hour period," said Gejdos. According to Gejdos, SSD dealt with 12 faults on the high-voltage network and dozens more on the low-voltage network on Sunday evening. Some 350 distribution transformer stations remained out of service. "The worst situation was in the district of Povazska Bystrica, but extensive outages also hit the districts of Namestovo (Zilina region), Zvolen and Lucenec (both Banska Bystrica region)," said Gejdos. The power cuts were caused mainly by branches and trees falling onto overhead power lines. In several locations, power lines snapped and fell to the ground. "SSD maintenance crews have been out in the field since Sunday, working to restore the network and resolve all the faults. Most of them were repaired within a few hours, meaning that only a few hundred households were still without electricity on Monday morning," said Gejdos. He added that SSD workers are continuing to deal with the aftermath of the high winds and expect to restore power to most affected households during Monday. "The work of electricians in such conditions is being complicated mainly by fallen trees that are blocking access roads or have to be removed from power lines. In many cases, they are relying on the assistance of firefighters. Another recurring complication is that many of the faults have occurred in hard-to-reach locations, most of them in forested areas," said Gejdos. ko/df