140,000 households were briefly without electricity in the late morning yesterday. 100,000 in Innsbruck and 40,000 households in 34 surrounding communities were affected by the large-scale power failure, according to Tinetz, the state’s own network operator. The reason for this was a defect during conversion work at the Ost substation in Innsbruck, which led to an automatic shutdown.
Private households, shops and public transport were affected. Trams stood still for a short time, traffic lights failed. Traffic jams formed in front of the tunnels on the Autobahn because the traffic lights were switched to red. Passenger elevators got stuck, the fire brigade had to open several elevator doors. Mountain railways such as the Innsbruck Nordkette Railway were also affected. Around 20 people are said to have been waiting for the onward journey.
In the early Monday afternoon there was also a power failure in Vienna-Donaustadt. Almost 2,000 households were without electricity by around 4 p.m. The cause was not known yesterday afternoon, but according to the Wiener Netze network, 70 percent of the faults can be assumed to be someone else’s fault, such as lightning or a careless excavator.
Source: Nachrichten
