By Rannveig Loken, Norway
Abuja, Nigeria: Nigeria’s national power grid collapsed after a generator tripped, triggering a cascade of failures across the system. Frequent power grid collapses have long plagued Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, forcing businesses and households to depend on costly diesel or petrol-powered generators to meet energy needs.
Cuba, Havana: There was a national grid collapsed in Cuba, the fourth time in less than a year, for the majority of the country’s 9.7 million residents. Even before the grid collapse, many had experienced daily blackouts of 16 hours or more. The system has an effective capacity of just under 2000 megawatts and a national demand of over 3,000 MW.
Irland: In the Republic of Ireland, about 184,000 properties lost power due to storm Amy. There was amber warning for high winds, and recorded wind gust of 92mph, provisionally a new October record.
with a total shutdown of around 10,000 megawatts (MW) of load and more than 1 million consumers affected. When the incident occurred, there was exporting around 5,000MW across Brazil.
Ukraine, 21 October 2025: Russian attacks left hundreds of thousands without power and many without water in Ukraine’s Chernihiv region. Chernihiv region, which borders Russia with a population of about a million, has been hammered by drone and missile attacks on its power infrastructure, causing regular blackouts and disrupting daily life.
New Zealand: Strong winds of up to 155km/h (96mph) in New Zealand left around 90,000 homes without power and forced authorities to cancel more than 100 flights. New Zealand authorities issued rare red wind warnings – the highest alert level – in central regions including Canterbury and Wellington. Roofs were ripped off houses, while trees and electricity poles were knocked down.
Haiti: The hurricane Melissa made landfall as a category five storm in Jamaica, with severe flooding where people remain stuck on roofs and without power.
Jamaica: Hurricane Melissa, a category four storm, with wind speeds of 130mph (209km/h), made landfall on Jamaica’s coastline with winds of more than 185mph, the strongest storm in its modern history. Nearly a third of the country lost power due to the storm. The storm flattened entire community.
New York City, USA: A record rainfall hit New York, and some areas saw record-breaking rainfall, with 1.80 inches recorded in Central Park, surpassing a 1917 record, and 1.97 inches at LaGuardia Airport, breaking the previous record set in 1955.
Ukraine, 31 October 2025: There were Russian attacks on substations critical to supplying external power for Ukraine’s nuclear power stations. There were incidents near two nuclear plants – South Ukraine and Khmelnitskyi – that led to each plant losing access to an external power line. A third station at Rivne had been forced to reduce power at two of its four reactors.
Afghanistan: An earthquake struck northern Afghanistan near Mazar-e-Sharif, one of the country’s largest cities that is home to about 500,000 people. It had a magnitude of 6.3 and a depth of 28km. The quake led to a power outage across the country including in the capital city Kabul, after electricity lines from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan – major suppliers of power to Afghanistan – were damaged.
Dominican Republic: The Dominican Republic had a nationwide power cut. It was linked to a failure in generation units in two major power plants that had shut down, causing “a cascade of failures” in other parts of the grid. The national power system was gradually restored to ensuring grid stability and security.
Biography:
Rannveig J. S. Loken – Head of Protection department, Statnett, Norway, CIGRE TC Chair.
Received her Master of Science in Electric Power engineering from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in 1992. She works in Statnett, the TSO of Norway, currently Head of Protection department in Statnett. In August 2024 she became the TC Chair of CIGRE. Her special field of interest is protection and control for the transmission system. In addition, working in Cigre Working groups is of great interest – she is currently a member of WG B5.86. Rannveig is in the Advisory board of PAC world, Committee member of IET DPSP, and Member of the International Advisory Committee APAP.
