Tens of thousands still without power in Latvia after storm

As of Monday evening, more than 50,000 customers of "Sadales tīkls" were still without electricity in Latvia, following a powerful storm that swept through the country. Throughout Monday, power was restored to about 33,000 customers. Since the peak of the outages on Sunday morning, electricity has been reconnected for 223,000 customers, representing 80% of those initially affected.

The most significant power disruptions are currently concentrated in the regions of Preiļi, Aizkraukle, Sigulda, Rēzekne, Jēkabpils, Ogre, Ludza, Bauska, Krāslava, Jelgava, Saulkrasti, and Cēsis. "Sadales tīkls" has warned that due to the extensive damage caused by the storm, particularly in forested areas, restoring electricity to some customers might require several days.

Crews have addressed 551 storm-related damages to the distribution power grid. A total of 223 "Sadales tīkls" teams are engaged in these repair efforts, supplemented by seven teams from Estonia. The storm's impact has affected both the high-voltage transmission grid operated by AS "Augstsprieguma tīkls" (AST) and the distribution network. To enable "Sadales tīkls" to restore power in the medium-voltage network, damage to the main transmission lines must be repaired first. Consequently, some repair crews were involved in fixing transmission line damage in collaboration with AST on Sunday.

Simultaneously, "Sadales tīkls" teams are working to restore voltage to all medium-voltage lines before systematically addressing damages in the low-voltage network. This prioritized sequence aims to restore electricity to the largest number of customers as quickly as possible. On Monday afternoon, drones surveyed approximately 150 kilometers of power lines affected by the storm. The storm, which occurred on Saturday, August 22, and the following night, was described as the strongest summer storm in Latvia in the last decade, with wind speeds in some areas exceeding 30 meters per second. Initially, the outages affected around 277,000 customers across Latvia.