President Volodimir Zelensky called Pedro Sanchez, the Spanish president to support him and provide him with a necessary help, himself empowered to manage power outages within his country, because of the Russian strikes.
However, it remains problematic in other places, especially in Portugal where 10% of the households had found electricity, approximately 24 hours after the start of the failure. The cause of this failure of the electricity network has not yet been found … even if the track of a cyber attack was quickly dismissed.
One thing is certain is that the geographic location of the Iberian peninsula, particularly isolated, has not arranged the situation. Indeed, as La Dépêche points out, “Spain and Portugal are only connected to the rest of Europe by two main lines: one with Morocco, the other with France ”. Interconnections were instantly cut during the breakdown to avoid contagion.
Ukraine, the other European country periodically deprived of its electricity
In addition to this strange case widely relayed by the media, there is another European country where electricity failures have been common for several years: Ukraine, whose energy infrastructure has been widely attacked by Russia since the start of the war in 2022.
As the XATACA specialized media notes, the Eastern country had lost no less than nine gigawatts of production capacity in just three months, last summer. This is equivalent to more than a third of its pre-war capacity, but also on the total peak demand from countries like the Netherlands (the highest electricity level for a given period), according to Ukrenergo data, a Ukrainian company which focuses on the transport of electricity on the high voltage network.
The objective of the Russians: to condemn Ukraine and its inhabitants to a forced darkness, but also to make them more vulnerable to the violent winters that the country knows. In July 2024, a BBC article reported the way in which the Ukrainians organized themselves in the face of electricity cuts.
Adapt and fight against these current failures
“” “The elevators do not work either, which obliges mothers with children and people with disabilities to wait. They plan their outings according to electricity availability. They must stay inside for six hours in a row, and our elderly ladies cannot go shopping to buy their bread”, For the British media Roksolana, resident in a Kyiv building.
“” “All public thermal power plants are destroyed. All the hydroelectric power plants in our country are damaged by Russian missiles or drones ”, Ukrenergo spokesperson. In summer, housing cannot be refreshed by air conditioning either.
To fight against this energy war, “invincibility points” are offered to the inhabitants. This allows them to recharge their devices but also to have access to the Internet. Some companies have their own generator. A forced adaptation, far from being as comfortable as those of yesteryear.
With an unwavering passion for local news, Christopher leads our editorial team with integrity and dedication. With over 20 years’ experience, he is the backbone of Wouldsayso, ensuring that we stay true to our mission to inform.
