The Lights Go Out in Europe

A rolling series of power failures struck Western Europe today, leaving millions of people, in at least five countries, without electricity. Authorities claim the problem started due a spike in demand somewhere in Germany caused, ostensibly, by a drop in the temperature. A pair of transmission lines failed, and as a result, substations across Western Europe shut down to prevent fires and other serious damage that might have resulted. The lights are now back on for most of the affected areas - and thankfully no major incidents transpired as a result of the systemic failures. The countries affected were France, Germany, Belgium, Spain and Italy.



This is eerily similar to the major blackout in America a while back that was ostensibly caused by a lightning strike near the Canadian border, if I remember correctly.

I'm shocked that their electrical grid is as vulnerable to this sort of disruption as ours. I was under the impression that Europe spent a lot more for infrastructure upgrades. I guess not, or if so, it wasn't enough.

Needless to say, it seems very odd to me that a chilly day could blackout Western Europe, so I'm going to keep my eyes on this story to see what else develops. I'd be surprised if the mainstream media digs very deep into the circumstances surrounding the blackout - maybe ATSers will show more interest in pursuing the story.

[edit on 5-11-2006 by WyrdeOne]

Its not really a chilly day. We went from 16-20°C during day and 10-15 during night to 5-10°C during the day and -4-0°C at night all of the sudden.

And the blackouts were more or less caused because of overreacting security measures that shut down power to small towns and such to keep industry and city regions powered up.

Its more of an error in the network then because there wasn't enough power.

Belgium for instance only imports a small % of power, yet it was affected in many smaller towns while there was actualy plenty of power.