On Friday, June 21, Southeastern Europe was hit by a serious incident that led to major disruptions in Europe’s continental power system. This event resulted in a significant loss of electricity supply capacity, which temporarily made it difficult to meet the demand for electricity in the region.
The incident particularly affected Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Croatia, where interruptions in the supply of electricity were recorded. A failure in the transmission network, which went through a series of individual episodes, led to blackouts in these countries.
The European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) has issued a temporary report which describes the system conditions prior to the event, the development of those conditions, as well as the measures taken immediately after the supply interruption occurred.
The report provides a detailed overview of the factors that contributed to the blackout and discusses the actions taken to ensure stable operation of the system and mitigate the consequences.
As stated in the report, the disturbance included several interruptions in the operation of various substations and at several voltage levels, with the primary impact on the 400 kV and 220 kV networks. The first interruption was recorded at 12:09:16 on the 400 kV transmission line Ribarevine-Podgorica 2 (Montenegro), while the second one followed on the 400 kV line Zemblak (Albania) – Kardia (Greece) at 12:21:30. Both of these incidents were confirmed as a result of insufficient clearing of vegetation around the water lines.
These initial trips caused additional failures on several other transmission lines, leading to voltage drops in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania and Croatia. The disruption caused a significant loss of load and generation capacity, with a total generation loss of 2,214 MW and significant load shedding in various transmission system operators over just a few minutes.
The transformers reacted to the voltage drop, whereby automatic voltage regulation was recorded mainly in the control zones in Montenegro, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, while in Albania automatic regulation was not available.
The report also states that effective communication during the critical event and the recovery process was of crucial importance. Transmission system operators were immediately notified of the disruption, which enabled a rapid response to voltage drops and power outages in the affected regions. The timely exchange of information enabled coordinated efforts and ensured that all necessary prerequisites and preparatory activities for the recovery process were successfully implemented.
This interim report is the result of a thorough analysis and careful data collection of the incident, which began immediately after the system was stabilized. The report will serve as the basis for further investigation by the Expert Panel, composed of representatives of ENTSO-E, ACER and national regulatory bodies. Based on these findings, the Panel will prepare a final report.
Energy portal
Source: energetskiportal.rs
