Power restored Sunday to more substations after Latvia's severe storm
After Saturday's severe storm left over a quarter-million households without power, voltage was restored to seven substations and 11 transmission lines by 2 p.m. Sunday, with more than 200 crews working to fix the damage.
Restoration work continues across several regions of Latvia following the powerful storm that struck the country on Saturday evening and overnight into Sunday. Transmission system operator AS "Augstsprieguma tīkls" (AST) told LETA that, as of 2 p.m. Sunday, power had been restored to substations in Jaunpils, Salaspils, Dobele, Daugavgrīva, Cēsis, Ieriķi and Ogre, and 11 transmission lines had resumed operation.
Scale of the damage
The storm caused extensive damage to the transmission grid, with faults recorded on nearly 50 lines and more than 40 substations. To locate and fix the problems, crews must inspect overhead lines spanning more than 1,500 kilometers in total.
Early Sunday, at 7 a.m., the situation was even more severe: 46 of AST's more than 150 substations were affected, along with damage to five 330 kV and 44 110 kV overhead transmission lines. At that point, roughly 277,000 customers of distribution system operator AS "Sadales tīkls" (ST) were without electricity.
Restoration efforts
The recovery of the transmission network allows ST to continue repairing medium- and low-voltage lines, gradually restoring supply to households. More than 200 AST and ST crews are currently involved in the restoration effort.
According to Sadales tīkls, most of the damage to the distribution grid was caused by trees and branches falling onto overhead lines during the storm, as well as damaged poles and other grid components. The company has deployed all available resources to fix the damage, but given the scale of destruction, restoring power to some customers may take several days.
