{"id":83289,"date":"2026-09-02T12:47:06","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T12:47:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/83289\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T12:47:06","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T12:47:06","slug":"german-power-grid-hit-twice-in-latest-suspected-sabotage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/83289\/","title":{"rendered":"German Power Grid Hit Twice in Latest Suspected Sabotage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Germany\u2019s power grid was hit twice in a single day on Tuesday, with incidents on opposite sides of the country knocking units of coal-fired power plants offline and authorities investigating possible terrorist or extremist motives.<\/p>\n

The latest incident occurred in the industrial heartland surrounding the Rhine river on Tuesday evening, shutting off five units of RWE AG\u2019s lignite-fired power plants with a combined capacity of 4.2 gigawatts. Earlier that morning, unknown perpetrators damaged several transmission lines in eastern Germany using homemade projectiles, triggering a temporary outage at LEAG\u2019s J\u00e4nschwalde coal plant.<\/p>\n

Germany has faced several attacks on its energy infrastructure this year, including a major arson attack in Berlin that caused a widespread blackout. While the attackers behind the latest events remain unknown, Germany is on high alert following a failed drone attack at Leipzig airport, which authorities have blamed on Russia.<\/p>\n

Authorities are examining whether the two events in the west and east are connected, said Herbert Reul, the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, in a press conference on Wednesday. Investigators for the west German attack are exploring two possible motives \u2014 foreign state-directed sabotage and far-left extremism \u2014 while police in the eastern state of Brandenburg have opened an investigation that includes suspicion of forming a terrorist organization.<\/p>\n

Grid operator Amprion said the incident on Tuesday evening occurred near its substation in Rommerskirchen in the Rhineland. It added that general power supply was not affected at any time and system stability was guaranteed.<\/p>\n

RWE said the five lignite-fired power plant units included Neurath G and F and Niederau\u00dfem H, G and K. Most had been feeding electricity into the grid at the time of the incident. RWE said it will reconnect most of the units, with a combined capacity of 2.6 gigawatts, on Wednesday, and the remaining 1.6 gigawatts is expected to return over the weekend.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The local Essen police force said it was operating on the assumption of \u201ca deliberate act, a criminal offense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Countries across Europe are racing to harden power grids against sabotage, cyberattacks and military threats. The push follows Russia\u2019s repeated attacks on Ukraine\u2019s energy infrastructure and a series of sabotage incidents across Europe.<\/p>\n

Read more: Germany Blames Russia for Attempted Drone Attack, Expects More<\/a><\/p>\n

The German economy ministry declined to comment on details of the two incidents, but said \u201cacts of sabotage against critical infrastructure pose a serious threat.\u201d Russia\u2019s war of aggression, the rise in acts of sabotage targeting the economy and the increasing frequency of extreme weather events make it clear that Germany be better prepared with regard to critical infrastructure, a spokesperson added.<\/p>\n

According to Talha Torlak, who leads short-term power trading at Vitus Commodities, there was a \u201cvery extreme deficit\u201d on Tuesday evening between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. after RWE\u2019s lignite units went offline. That pushed preliminary imbalance prices \u2014 the cost of correcting unexpected gaps between electricity supply and demand \u2014 to \u20ac5,000 per megawatt-hour. After 9 p.m. the system quickly stabilized, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe grid handled the incident well,\u201d said Leonhard Gandhi, a researcher at Fraunhofer Institute, adding that the situation would only become critical if several such attacks occurred simultaneously or targeted central grid nodes. \u201cThat is why the attempted sabotage that same morning near J\u00e4nschwalde is the truly alarming news,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Photograph: Germany has faced several attacks on its energy infrastructure this year; photo credit: Krisztian Bocsi\/Bloomberg<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Bloomberg.<\/p>\n

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