Parts of Bucharest hit by power blackout

Part of the electricity consumers in northeastern Bucharest (District 2) experienced a temporary power outage with a duration of at least half an hour on January 12 (11:14 AM).

The blackout was caused by the failure of a 220/110 kV electricity transformation station operated by Transelectrica. Some of the users were reportedly connected back to the grid only after several hours.

Power grid operator Transelectrica claims that it reconnected all clients by 11:40. The market regulator ANRE initiated investigations to identify the causes of the incident, Economica.net reported.

"We will analyze which performance indicators were not met, and we will impose fines if it's the case," ANRE representatives said.

This was the fifth such blackout in the northern part of Bucharest over the past four years.

This incident comes after several counties in the northwestern part of Romania were left without electricity on January 8, apparently due to regional malfunction involving more countries.

The European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) reported that, during the time interval in which a massive breakdown occurred that affected the electricity supply of northwestern Romania, the entire southeastern portion of Europe's synchronous network disconnected and operated separately from the rest of the continental network.

"This is a system failure caused by interconnections. We do not know the exact causes yet, but we will analyze them," Transelectrica stated.

Local fertilizer producer Azomures said it incurred losses caused by the blackout and that it would request compensations from Transelectrica, Profit.ro reported.

(Photo source: Pixabay.com)