Why there are so many power outages in summer

“We have two to three times as many power outages in June, July and August across Austria as in the rest of the year,” said Christian Call, spokesman for Wiener Netze, to the APA. “75 percent of the power outages are caused by third parties.” This is due to the “three ‘B’s’ – excavators, trees and lightning,” he said, referring to lines damaged by construction work or storms.

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In summer there is more construction work. Damage caused by excavation work is a particular issue in cities like Vienna, where many power lines run underground. In Vienna, the proportion of power outages caused by external factors in summer is 80 to 85 percent. Other external causes are severe weather and lightning during summer thunderstorms. Falling trees and lightning repeatedly damage above-ground power lines. Transformer stations can be flooded by heavy rain and thus fail.

Excellent power grid

The networks in Europe and also in Austria are excellently maintained and looked after, stressed Call. Austria has an excellent power grid compared to other countries, but is nevertheless “not immune to external influences”. Areas affected by power outages can often be reconnected to the functioning network relatively quickly, at least in part, remotely controlled by diversions. The rest of the outages have to be repaired manually, explained the Vienna Networks spokesman.

Increased electricity consumption – for example from air conditioning – and any associated problems do not occur in Austria in summer. The load on the electricity grid “is still significantly higher in winter than in summer,” said Call. In winter, more people are at home, it is light for less time and therefore more lights are turned on and more cooking is done at home. In addition, heaters are equipped with circulation pumps, for example, which also increases electricity consumption in winter.