Power outage news from around the world

A power failure at Nicosia courts on Monday morning caused the collapse of the i-justice system, bringing proceedings to a standstill. This outage led to significant delays and long queues, frustrating both lawyers and their clients. The Electricity Authority of Cyprus clarified that the issue was not due to a fault in the area or a scheduled power cut but originated from the courts' installations. An engineer from the Electromechanical Service reported that a fault occurred in the electrical installation of three buildings, leading to a power supply interruption from the main switch for safety reasons. Officials have confirmed that the problem has since been resolved.

A massive power failure occurred in Buenos Aires on Wednesday, affecting over 600,000 customers, including the Casa Rosada presidential palace. The outage disrupted traffic lights, suspended subway services, and caused traffic jams in multiple neighborhoods. The blackout began at 12:40 p.m. due to a high-voltage line failure amid soaring temperatures exceeding 35°C, with a heat index reaching 44°C. By mid-afternoon, service had been restored to approximately 70% of those affected, leaving around 200,000 customers still without power.

A power failure at the Bahrain International Circuit led to a red flag during Formula 1 pre-season testing. The outage, caused by an external substation failure, occurred shortly after 5 pm local time, affecting track floodlights, pitlane, and paddock facilities. Testing resumed at 6:10 pm after power was restored. Lando Norris set the fastest lap of the day for McLaren.

A massive power failure in Chile plunged Santiago into darkness and halted operations at major northern copper mines. The blackout, caused by a transmission line failure, affected approximately 8 million homes. Authorities declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. By 10 p.m., about 25% of the electrical grid's demand was restored, with full power expected by morning. The government is investigating the cause of the outage.

South Africa's Eskom has implemented stage 6 power outages, cutting 6,000 megawatts from the grid. This follows multiple generation unit failures at power stations, causing widespread power failures nationwide. Eskom’s aging coal plants frequently break down, leading to load shedding. These outages have a severe economic impact, with the central bank estimating losses of up to $49 million per day.

South Africa is experiencing Stage 3 power outages as Eskom struggles with electricity supply issues. The rolling blackouts are expected to continue, impacting homes and businesses across the country. Eskom has cited various operational challenges in its efforts to stabilize the grid. The situation remains critical, with power failures affecting daily life.

Can you imagine Swiss government proposing restrictions on transmission large files over mobile networks? They did it! While a power failure scenario is considered unlikely, the Federal Council stated that sector-specific measures are also needed to prevent a collapse of the power supply in an emergency. Another sector, telecommunications, has drawn up proposals to reduce electricity consumption.

Network delivery and security giant Cloudflare has experienced a multi-day outage on its control plane and analytics services. The systems suffered an outage, resulting in some customers being unable to access certain services.

Eskom had projected an unprecedented level of power cuts during the winter months. Although its most dire predictions did not materialise, the country still experienced 10 hours of power cuts for 39 days in winter and not a single day with uninterrupted supply.

The most prolonged nationwide power outage in Kenyan memory remained a mystery as the government-owned power company blamed a failure at Africa’s largest wind farm, which laid the responsibility on the power grid instead. Some of Kenya’s more than 50 million people, including in the capital, Nairobi, saw power return almost 24 hours after the massive outage

An explosion at a power substation in southern France left tens of thousands of households across three departments without power. Homes were left on average without power for around an hour. It took up to four hours in the worst-hit areas for it to be restored.

Bernard Grech attributes the recent spate of power outages to a decision made by the previous Labour government a decade ago, after it chose to shelve PN's plans for improving the distribution network. Widespread power cuts across Malta caused by a week-long heatwave have led to criticism of Prime Minister Robert Abela's government, with business fearing it could damage summer tourism on the island

Kazakh Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov briefed President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on the results of the investigation into the causes of a power outage. Noting a high accident rate of power stations in the Atyrau and Mangystau regions, Nurmaganbetov highlighted that the energy complex equipment was completely worn out

A delegation of Israeli surgeons faced a daunting challenge when a general power failure interrupted a life-saving surgery they were performing in Ethiopia. But thanks to their quick thinking and resourcefulness, the team successfully completed the procedure and saved the life of a three-year-old patient.

Furious Eurostar passengers have hit out over massive delays after a failure of the electrical supply between Ashford International and Ebbsfleet International caused issues on Sunday. Hundreds of passengers were forced to stand in huge queues during high temperatures before being told the last service was cancelled.

Johannesburg Water authority says its systems are steadily improving after a power failure at the Vereeniging purification plant infrastructure. The authority says the pumping system is making steady progress after the water supply was affected for the past two days which affected pumping capacity at the bulk supplier’s Eikenhof pump station leaving most of the serviced areas without water supply.

Umgeni Water says the plant has not been receiving power for a while, meaning they are unable to treat water to drinking standards. Umgeni Water is responsible for the supply of drinking water to the eThekwini metro. Contractors are doing everything they can to restore the power supply as quickly as possible.

Birnin Kebbi residents have decried incessant power outage caused by Kaduna Electric Distribution Company (KAEDCO), which according to them, has paralysed socio-economic activities in the area. Businessmen and shop owners are badly affected, the excessive power outage has almost crippled their businesses due to insufficient supply of power on daily basis.

The Cuban Electric Union reported that the provinces from Cienfuegos to Guantanamo were without power. The event is associated with a fault in the 220 kV Matanzas-Santa Clara and Matanzas-Cienfuegos lines. Specialists from the sector began the restoration process and the causes of the failure are being investigated

Households and enterprises in seven regions across Kazakhstan were temporarily knocked off the power grid as temperatures dropped to around -14 degrees Celsius over the weekend, in fresh evidence of how the country is struggling to cope with inexorably mounting demand for electricity. State-run power grid operator KEGOC said in a statement that the need to effect an emergency suspension of transmissions on a high-voltage power line led to a 10 percent reduction in capacity.

Pakistan suffered a huge power cut following a breakdown in its national grid, leaving millions of people without electricity. Power minister Khurrum Dastagir said the grid failure followed a frequency variation in southern Pakistan. Pakistan often suffers from power cuts, which are blamed on mismanagement and a lack of investment in infrastructure.

Chaos erupted at the Philippines’ main gateway, after it faced a severe power outage, paralysing the country’s air traffic control and disrupting over 300 flights causing misery for over 65,000 passengers, the Associated Press reported.

Residents from Gansbaai, Stanford and Hermanus were left without any power supply following a power outage. The power failure were the result of the increasing pressure on the municipality's water and sanitation infrastructure. The power supply failure comes hot on the heels of Eskom announcing stage 6 load shedding.

Several districts of southern Paris were plunged into darkness on Thursday night due to a power outage tied to a technical glitch on an electrical transformer of energy supplier Enedis.

Power cuts in South Africa have intensified, with the most industrialized state on the continent having to cut electricity for six hours every day. Anger is mounting over the sweeping measures, caused by failures of ageing and poorly maintained infrastructure. Andre de Ruyter, the boss of state-owned Eskom, announced a series of planned outages in the coming week. Urging South Africans to use electricity sparingly, he called for office lights to be turned off at night, and for swimming pool pumps and water heaters to be turned off during peak hours.