Storm recovery moving slowly: over 100,000 households still without power Sunday evening

A powerful storm swept across Latvia on Saturday evening and overnight into Sunday, cutting power to more than a quarter of a million households. According to grid operator AS "Sadales tīkls," as of 9 p.m. on Sunday roughly 114,000 of its customers still had no electricity.

Slow but steady progress

At 7 a.m. on Sunday, around 277,000 customers were without power. Since then, supply has been restored to more than half of the affected households, though a large number of residents are still waiting for electricity to return. Repair crews are working in an intensified regime overnight into Monday to continue restoring service.

Hundreds of crews on the ground

Currently 206 crews from Sadales tīkls are working to fix the damage, with the company deploying all available resources. Seven additional crews from Estonian grid operator Elektrilevi have also joined the effort.

Damage to both transmission and distribution networks

The storm caused extensive damage to both the transmission network operated by AS "Augstsprieguma tīkls" and the distribution network managed by Sadales tīkls. Company representative Ilze Dimante explained that before power can be restored on the medium-voltage distribution network, damage on the main transmission lines must first be repaired. As a result, some repair crews are working closely with colleagues from Augstsprieguma tīkls to fix the primary transmission lines before continuing work on the local distribution grid.