Storm leaves 2,500 electricity customers without power

About 2,500 customers remained without electricity in Latvia on Friday morning after a storm, LSM reported. By 6 a.m., electricity distribution company Sadales tīkls had restored power to most customers affected by the storm.

More than 200 Sadales tīkls crews were continuing repair work, along with seven crews from Estonia’s electricity distribution system operator Elektrilevi.

The pace of restoration has gradually slowed because the remaining faults affect fewer customers. Crews are working on smaller sections of the electricity network where repairs are more difficult and time-consuming, with some faults affecting only one or two customers.

The largest disruptions were in Aizkraukle and Jēkabpils municipalities, where more than 300 customers in each municipality remained without power on Friday morning.

Sadales tīkls said electricity could provisionally be restored to all customers during the day if no additional unforeseen work was required.

The company warned that customers might receive confirmation that power had been restored while electricity had not yet reached their homes because of faults in the low-voltage network. It asked customers in that situation to submit a new report. Repeated outages are also possible if broken trees or branches fall onto power lines and cause new faults.

Latvia was hit by its strongest summer storm since at least 1966 during the night of August 23.