Storm leaves 8,500 households without power on fourth day

About 8,500 households, or 3% of the electricity customers affected by the storm, remained without power at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, LSM reported. Crews from Sadales tīkls, Latvia’s electricity distribution company, continued working at damaged sites, so the number of outages was expected to fall further during the evening.

The most difficult situation was in the Aizkraukle, Bauska and Jēkabpils municipalities, which had the highest numbers of disconnected households. Sadales tīkls was moving some crews from less affected regions, including Kurzeme, to areas with more extensive and complicated damage.

The company forecast that electricity would be restored to all customers by Friday.

Across Latvia, crews continued inspecting damaged lines and carrying out repairs. Large trees had fallen onto wires in many places, while other damage included severed cables and broken electricity poles. Drones were also being used to survey the storm damage, significantly speeding up the identification of damaged sections of the power network.

More than 200 Sadales tīkls crews were involved in the restoration work, with all available company resources mobilised. Seven crews from Estonia’s electricity distribution system operator Elektrilevi had also been brought in.

Sadales tīkls was working with the State Fire and Rescue Service and Latvian State Forests specialists to inspect the power network. The company was also cooperating closely with telecommunications operators to restore mobile communications as quickly as possible. Its work was being coordinated with municipalities and the responsible institutions.

Restoration begins with repairs to the medium-voltage network, followed by work on low-voltage lines. If there is no damage in the low-voltage network, electricity can be restored to customers. After medium-voltage repairs are completed, residents may receive notification that their power supply has been restored even though electricity has not yet returned.