PODGORICA (Reuters) -A major power outage hit Montenegro, Bosnia, Albania and most of Croatia’s coast on Friday, disrupting businesses, shutting down traffic lights and leaving people sweltering without air conditioning in the middle of a heatwave.
Montenegro’s energy minister said the shutdown was caused by a sudden increase in power consumption brought on by high temperatures, and by the heat itself overloading systems. Power distribution is linked across the Balkans for transfers and trading.
“This was just waiting to happen in this heat,” Gentiana, a 24-year-old student in Montenegro’s capital Podgorica, told Reuters. Temperatures hit 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) across the southeastern European region.
Electricity and wifi networks went down from around 1 p.m. (1100 GMT), officials and social media users said. Suppliers in the four countries said they started restoring supply by mid-afternoon and power was largely back by the evening.
At the start of the blackout, traffic light failures caused gridlock in Bosnia’s capital Sarajevo and the cities of Banja Luka and Mostar, Reuters reporters said.
Many lost water in Podgorica as pumps stopped working, locals reported. Air conditioners shut down and ice cream melted in tourist shops.
As temperatures soar, the demand for electricity increases, putting additional strain on the system.
The Balkan power outage, therefore, highlights the vulnerability of the region’s power infrastructure to extreme weather conditions.
Consequently, as temperatures soar, the demand for electricity increases, putting additional strain on the system. This incident, moreover, underscores the need for urgent investments in resilient and sustainable energy infrastructure.
Furthermore, the minister emphasized the importance of modernizing the grid to prevent future outages.
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