Disruption of power grid in Europe and Pakistan

Massive disruption in the 

European power grid

Europe barely missed a blackout on Friday lunchtime. The cause of the network problems could be in Eastern Europe.

Future Zone.

January, 2021

Translated by Google Translate

On Friday afternoon around 2 p.m. there was a brief disruption to the European power grid. As confirmed by the Austrian Power Grid (APG), there was a frequency deviation . The normal frequency of 50 Hz dropped sharply to 49.75 Hz. "A larger supply area must have broken away," explains blackout expert Herbert Saurugg of futurezone. The short-term frequency deviation was around 260 mHz, as also confirmed by Austria Power Grid .

According to Saurugg, who has been dealing with crisis management for years, it is the second worst incident since the power failure in Europe in 2006. At that time, the shutdown of two high-voltage lines in Germany led to a frequency drop. As a result, the power went out in several European countries. Fortunately, this didn't happen on Friday, but it was close.

Synchronized power grid

Usually the European power grid is synchronized to compensate for any fluctuations. If the frequency falls too low, this synchronization will be interrupted automatically. So-called temporary network splitting occurs, in which the interconnected network is split up.

There are a number of many security mechanisms that apply in such a case, explains an APG spokesman for futurezone. In order for the frequency to slip back into the normal range, reserves of several power plants are also activated, also in Austria. That also happened today, said the APG spokesman. After about an hour, the normal state was restored.

Cause possibly in Eastern Europe

"If several such problems come together, it could trigger a blackout," explains Saurugg. The European electricity grid was also affected by strong fluctuations on January 10, 2019 . However, they fell to 49.8 Hz - that was even higher than today's drop. At that time, however, the network did not split up.

The cause of the event is currently being investigated. According to initial reports, the incident could have occurred in south-east Europe. In any case, according to the APG, it was outside Austria.

 

Pakistan’s national power grid has failed, leaving almost the entire country in the dark. With officials blaming a mysterious “plunge in the frequency,” conspiracy theories quickly proliferated.

"A countrywide blackout has been caused by a sudden plunge in the frequency in the power transmission system," Pakistani power minister Omar Ayub Khan wrote on Twitter, shortly after the country was plunged into darkness before midnight on Saturday.

Pakistanis soon shared pictures of their blacked out cities and towns, with the starry night sky clearly visible above without the usual light pollution.

/https://www.rt.com/news/512042-massive-power-outage-pakistan/