How much did the massive blackout that paralyzed Prague cost? Impossible to find out
The financial damage that could have been caused by the massive power outage that hit Prague a month ago is practically impossible to quantify. At Pražská energetika (PRE), no one claimed the damage, the company itself did not suffer any damage to the equipment.
If a customer demanded compensation for damage, he had to contact ČEPS, his equipment was out of order. PRE spokesman Petr Holubec told ČTK.
“We do not record any financial damage to our equipment, if any occurred due to no electricity at customers, although I doubt it due to the short duration of the outage, the disability must be claimed at ČEPS, whose equipment was damaged. As a supplier, we were actually also damaged by the fact that we could not supply electricity to our customers during the outage, but none of them claimed damages from us,” said Holubec.
According to him, the backup sources either worked for the customers, or these customers knew that it was not PRE’s fault. “And we don’t know if they tried to negotiate with ČEPS. Therefore, it is practically impossible to determine the financial costs for this unpleasant event,” said Holubec. According to ČEPS, however, the calculation of the costs associated with non-delivery is not a matter for ČEPS, but for the distributor, i.e. PREdistribuce.
“The Chodov substation was modernized three years ago, we are not considering further modernization at the moment. The shutdown of the substation was caused by the logical protection of the insulating gas pressures, the settings of which will be adjusted so that a similar situation does not occur again. The substation was fully functional already 54 minutes after the blackout, when the 400 kV power supply was restored,” ČEPS spokesman Lukáš Hrabal told ČTK.
According to Holubek, this was not the first time a malfunction occurred at the Chodov substation. “We used the experience gained from the first case, a fire several years ago, and relatively quickly restored the supply of electricity to the affected area,” he said.
Technical problem
Massive power outage in Prague caused according to ČEPS by a technical fault in the substation in Chodov. For example, a power outage stopped the metro on line C for nine minutes. Trams were not running on the right bank and in the east of the city.
According to ČEPS, the outage occurred due to the protection of the insulating gas pressures, which caused the shutdown of the substation. According to Holubek, ČEPS should take any measures to stop another outage.
The Chodov electrical substation has been in operation since 1997. Three years ago, the ČEPS company had it renovated and expanded its capacity for approximately 300 million crowns. Problems with power supplies in Prague arose in the Chodov substation in the past as well. In normal operation, the capital city is supplied by three input substations, namely in Řeporyje, Chodov and Malešice.