Power failure interrupts the heat supply

Created: 01/09/2022Updated: 01/09/2022, 9:53 PM

A measuring device is attached to a radiator.

© Fernando Gutierrez-Juarez / dpa-Zentralbild / dpa / symbol image

A three-minute power failure in the afternoon had consequences for thousands of Berliners for hours: Because the failure also paralyzed a thermal power station, 90,000 households were left without heating and hot water in the evening.

Berlin - Thousands of people in the east of Berlin had to get by for hours on Sunday evening without heating and without warm water - with outside temperatures of around three degrees Celsius.

A brief power outage at the state's own electricity network operator Stromnetz Berlin had paralyzed the Klingenberg thermal power station in the Rummelsburg district in the afternoon, as the energy supplier Vattenfall announced.

The power plant owned by the company had to shut down.

According to Vattenfall, the water in the pipes of around 90,000 households, especially in Berlin-Friedrichsfelde, was therefore gradually cooling down.

According to the Lichtenberg district office, people in Karlshorst, Oberschöneweide and parts of Treptow-Köpenick were also affected.

The district office had informed Nina about the incident in the evening via the disaster warning app.

According to a Vattenfall spokesman, the cogeneration plant could soon be restarted.

It would take a few hours for the water in the pipes to warm up again, he said.

Vattenfall assumed that all affected households would be supplied with heat again by midnight.

The district office and the fire brigade advised to keep windows and doors closed.

Open fires or barbecues should not be lit under any circumstances.

Ovens should not be used for heating either.

People should keep warm with clothes and blankets and also help their elderly neighbors.

The Klingenberg thermal power station supplies more than 300,000 households with electricity and heat.

According to the network operator Stromnetz Berlin, the power outage in the afternoon was due to a technical fault in a substation in Berlin-Friedrichshain.

There, as well as in Prenzlauer Berg and Lichtenberg, around 20,000 households were without electricity for a few minutes, as a spokeswoman said.

The fault on the high voltage level was therefore resolved after just three minutes.

Vattenfall, on the other hand, spoke of around 370,000 people affected by the power failure.

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However, the train stations Ostbahnhof, Warschauer Straße, Ostkreuz and Lichtenberg were temporarily without light.

Train traffic was not affected.

dpa