“Attack” Damages Found After Explosive Devices Discovered at Brandenburg Substation

Homemade devices resembling New Year’s Eve rockets damaged lines at a substation beside the Jänschwalde coal-fired power plant in Brandenburg, prompting the operator to describe the incident as an attack.

Police said several unconventional incendiary and explosive devices were discovered early Tuesday, although not all had detonated. One unexploded device was found at the substation, and authorities said the suspected devices appeared to have been built from projectiles similar to commercially sold fireworks rockets.

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The Block B unit with 500 megawatts of capacity has gone offline.

The incident affected the power plant’s operations. Block B, with a capacity of 500 megawatts, went offline, and operator Leag said it hoped to reconnect the unit during the day. The company was examining whether the outage at the nearby substation caused the loss of generation.

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The worryingly high frequency of such incidents shows that we must protect our infrastructure decisively.

Transmission operator 50Hertz said additional projectiles that had not been launched were found at the site. It said the suspected attempt to damage property occurred Tuesday morning. Investigators were still determining the extent of the damage, but officials said there had been no danger to the public and no customer power outage.

Brandenburg Premier Dietmar Woidke urged greater vigilance and said the frequency of such incidents was worrying. He said employees had acted calmly and prevented worse consequences, while security authorities worked to identify those responsible. The incident also recalled an earlier arson attack on Berlin’s power network.

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Anyone trying to sabotage our critical infrastructure and paralyze social life is attacking all of us. But we will neither be blackmailed nor intimidated by criminal energy.