A massive power outage that affected a large part of the Czech Republic on Friday was caused by the coincidence of several failures, but the reason for their overlap remains unclear, the head of the Czech energy transmission operator said at a press conference today.
Martin Durčák, chairman of the board at ČEPS, ruled out system overload, energy overflows, or third-party interference. He said the system had been operating reliably before the blackout.
The outage stemmed from a ruptured phase conductor, an electricity-transmitting cable, on the V411 backbone line. The same line had sustained damage in November 2023, but that incident did not lead to broader outages, ČEPS said.
1 million without electricity
Friday’s blackout lasted several hours and left around 1 million customers without electricity, according to Industry and Trade Minister Lukáš Vlček. The Czech Republic has about 6.3 million electricity consumption points in total.
The V411 failure knocked out the Ledvice power plant block in the Teplice region and the Krasíkov substation in the Pardubice region. Dispatchers also disconnected the V208 line to prevent overload.
“If there hadn’t been nearly simultaneous outages in other parts of the system, the V411 failure would not have breached operating limits,” said Durčák. “Under normal conditions, this type of failure wouldn’t trigger widespread disruptions.”
ČEPS has launched an investigation in coordination with energy distributors and experts. It expects preliminary results within weeks. In the meantime, the company began conducting aerial inspections of key transmission lines using thermal imaging.
Durčák also dismissed claims that electricity overflows from neighboring countries played a role. While imports from Germany were slightly above forecast, they remained within normal parameters, said ČEPS Vice Chairman Svatopluk Vnouček. “We typically see much higher flows without issue,” he added.
Government accused of cover up
However, opposition leader Andrej Babiš (ANO) blamed the failure on an “uncontrolled supply of solar and wind energy” from Poland and Germany. In a video posted to Facebook, he claimed that one of four major transformers near Kadaň, meant to regulate electricity inflows, has been offline since November and accused the government and ČEPS of covering up the cause of the outage.
Karel Havlíček, ANO’s deputy chairman and shadow prime minister, called for a full investigation into the conductor failure. He urged officials to examine both the condition of the national grid and the impact of cross-border electricity transfers.
“Downplaying this issue could lead to far worse consequences in the future,” Havlíček warned at a press conference Thursday.
He also criticized the government for not offering compensation to businesses affected by the blackout. Vlček, the industry minister, said earlier this week that compensation is not currently under discussion. The hospitality sector, among others, reported losses in the tens of millions of crowns.
“The first step should be assessing the damage, especially for entrepreneurs who suffered losses,” Havlíček said. “The government should have immediately engaged with professional associations and issued a formal apology. Rejecting compensation without even investigating the cause is an unacceptable show of arrogance.”