Storm leaves about 277,000 households without power — worst outage in 20 years
A powerful storm that swept across Latvia on Saturday night into Sunday caused the most extensive power outages in the past two decades, leaving roughly 277,000 customers without electricity by Sunday morning.
Mass grid damage began after 6 p.m. on Saturday as a very strong storm hit Latvia, with wind gusts near Daugavgrīva in Riga reaching 31 meters per second. The destruction continued through the night, and by 7 a.m. Sunday around 277,000 customers of distribution system operator Sadales tīkls (ST) were without power. Also affected were 46 of more than 150 substations belonging to transmission system operator Augstsprieguma tīkls (AST), along with damage to five 330 kV and 44 110 kV power lines — three of the 110 kV lines have already been restored.
Areas affected
In the storm's first wave, before 10 p.m. Saturday, outages hit the areas around Olaine, Jelgava, Ķekava, Madona, Dobele, Līvāni, Jēkabpils, Augšdaugava, Aizkraukle, Viesīte, Ludza, Zilupe, Krāslava, Dagda, Ilūkste and Subate, as well as Ugāle in Ventspils municipality. Power was restored promptly in Jaunpils and parts of Tukums and Dobele municipalities.
As the storm intensified after 10 p.m., new disruptions struck Salaspils, Riga, Iecava, Bauska, Ķegums, Baldone, Ogre, Aizkraukle municipality, Viļāni, Varakļāni, Rēzekne municipality, Lubāna, Preiļi, Ieriķi, Inčukalns, Cēsis and Sigulda municipalities, Lielvārde and Līvāni. Supply was quickly restored around Pļaviņas and Ērgļi.
Restoration efforts
AST said all available resources would be deployed on Sunday to fix the damage, working together with ST staff. The damage was mainly caused by trees and branches toppled by wind falling onto overhead lines, along with damaged poles. Hazardous weather, fallen trees and areas flooded by heavy rain are hampering crews' access to damage sites. Work is continuing at an intensified pace, including overnight, though full restoration for some customers may take several days.
According to forecasts from the Latvian Environment, Geology and Meteorology Centre, strong rain and wind gusts were expected to continue across most of the country on Sunday, gradually easing during the day to 15-19 meters per second, while gusts along the eastern coast of the Gulf of Riga could still reach 20-23 meters per second in the morning.
