Pipeline breakdown leaves half of Bucharest without hot water

Districts 2, 3, and 4 in Bucharest are without hot water as of the time of writing due to a major breakdown that occurred on Sunday, August 17, on a main pipeline of the city's public heating system. The pipeline is located in central Bucharest, at the intersection of Mihai Bravu Road with Splaiul Unirii, under the Mihai Bravu bride.

Representatives of Termoenergetica, the company in charge of the city’s heating system, said that they are striving to fix the breakdown during the night of Monday to Tuesday, August 18 to 19.

“We permanently had teams on the ground. The breakdown was detected and isolated somewhere on Splaiul Unirii, at the intersection with Mihai Bravu. Teams worked all night. They pumped the water out of the gallery because it was completely flooded. Even at this moment, in some areas, water is still being removed from the gallery. The teams worked continuously, in shifts,” Adela Ciudoescu, director of Termoenergetica, told Digi24.

Workers expect there to be a second breakdown that has yet to be detected. Meanwhile, over 4,000 apartment blocks in the Romanian capital are without hot water.

According to the company, due to the massive thermal agent losses generated by this breakdown, authorities decided to forcefully shut down CET Progresul, a thermal energy plant in the south of Bucharest, to prevent serious damage to the energy installations. Immediately after restoring the minimum operating parameters, the plant will be restarted.

Bucharest residents can check the functioning of the centralized heating system by using the map tool provided by Termoenergetica, or the mobile app Termoalert. At the moment, according to the app, the functioning of the system is at 44%.

(Photo source: ctemb.ro)