by Rannveig Loken, Norway
Analysis of system power outages can help us learn and avoid similar events in the future. If you have information on any blackouts, please e-mail to: editor@pacw.org
London, United Kingdom – 20 February 2024: Outage at four of its UK nuclear reactors have been extended because of continuing work on steam valves. The expected restart dates of Heysham 1-1, Heysham 1-2 (combined capacity of about 1.2 GW), and the Hartlepool 1 and 2 reactors (combined capacity of about 1.2 GW) have been pushed back by about a week to March. The Heysham 1 reactors have been offline since December and the Hartlepool units have been out of action since January.
Duesseldorf, Germany – 5 March 2024: Power had been restored to all areas, except a large industrial site, hit by a power outage that halted production at Tesla’s European Gigafactory near Berlin. Repair work would start as soon as investigating authorities gave their approval.
Berlin/Frankfurt, Germany – 6 March 2024: Tesla plant in Germany was expected to have no electricity until March 17, after a suspected arson attack that left the company’s gigafactory outside Berlin without power, forcing it to halt production. The production estimate is lowered from 489,000 to 421,100 deliveries for the first quarter due to this incident.
Punto Fijo, Venezuela – 14 March 2024: A power blackout left most of the city without power and Venezuela’s largest refining complex, Paraguana Refining Center, was shut down.
Punto Fijo, Venezuela –22 March 2024: A fire at Cardon refinery started around 5 a.m. after a loud explosion, was extinguished a couple of hours later. A gasoline leak was the cause of the incident. The fire reached a power substation within the complex, causing a power outage, and forcing the shutdown of three distillation units.
Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine -22 March 2024: The main 750 kV “Dniprovska” power line went down for almost five hours present dangers to nuclear safety and security”. The plant was in shut-down mode and receives electric power via two high-voltage lines, the more powerful of which went down on Friday morning as Russian drones and missiles struck Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine – 4 April 2024: A backup power line supplying Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine was out of operation but the main 750 kilovolt (kV) power line, was still running. The six reactors at the Zaporizhzhia plant, are not in operation but it relies on external power to keep its nuclear material cool and prevent a catastrophic accident. The plant has suffered eight instances of complete loss of off-site power in the past 19 months, forcing it to rely on emergency diesel generators.
Hawaii, USA -15 April 2024: The planned rolling blackouts was initiated to prevent widespread power loss due to decreased wind and solar power and the temporary loss of several large generators. 21,557 customers around the island experienced a 30-minute outage on Sunday night starting at 8:54 p.m and ending at 9:59 p.m.
Sierra Leon, Freetown -25 April 2024: Since mid-April, Freetown and the cities of Bo, Kenema and Koidu have experienced multi-day stretches without electricity because of unpaid dept to the electricity supplier. The production was scaled down from 6 GW to 60 MW. The power was reconnected when the government paid some of the dept to the energy supplier.
Bukittinggi, Indonesia – 14 May 2024: Torrential rain triggered flash floods, landslides, and cold lava flow – a mud-like mixture of volcanic ash, rock debris and water – in three districts in West Sumatra province. Almost 3,400 people were evacuated to nearby buildings. The heavy rain caused power outage for many houses.
Huston, TX, USA – 18 May 2024: More than 800 000 people faced sweltering heat because they were without power due to severe storms with winds of up to 100 mph, that damaged homes, buildings, and power lines.
Biography:
Rannveig J. S. Loken – Head of Protection department, Statnett, Norway, Chair for CIGRE SC B5
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 September 2018, she became Chair of CIGRE SC B5. 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 B5.69. Rannveig is in the Advisory board of PAC world, Committee member of IET DPSP, and Member of the International Advisory Committee APAP. Rannveig is associate editor of the PAC World magazine.
