Posted on 11/05/2006 11:08:21 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
BERLIN A shortage of electricity in Europe's power grid caused blackouts across the continent, halting trains, trapping people in lifts and plunging millions of homes into darkness.
Swathes of Germany and France were badly hit by the cuts late Saturday. Austria, Belgium, Italy and Spain were also affected.
A spokesman for German power company RWE AG said a shortfall in supplies to the European power grid caused many substations to shutdown automatically.
It was not immediately clear what caused the shortage.
Areas of western Germany were without power for a half-hour, delaying scores of trains for up to two hours, Deutsche Bahn spokesman Achim Stauss said.
Officials said thousands of worried citizens overwhelmed emergency services with telephone calls.
In France, about 5 million people were left without electricity, including many in the capital, Paris. In all, about 15 French regions were affected, firefighters said.
France Info radio quoted French power utility Electricite de France as saying that about 5 million people were still without power early Sunday, and that it was not sure when it would be able to bring consumers back online.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
France: the new Armpit of the Western World.
But, but, doesn't Western Europe have the best and most advanced electricity infrastructure in the world? [/sacrasm]
(Speaking as an insider in this industry)
If I remember correctly, the power is turned off at night in North Korea. It does appear, however, from the photo that a little bit of power is left on. Would that be Pyongyang by any chance?
RYMB ping
Having lived in Germany for 13 years now...I can attest to the fact that they all have expectations of 24-hours per day of power. Any outage lasting longer than 20 minutes becomes a major stress issue for a German. They all want explanations out of the power folks for a 1-hour outage or more...so it becomes a public relations nightmare when huge windstorms come through and knock alot of power out.
The impression I had in Europe was that their electric rates were shockingly higher than ours. True?
I have a regular 3-bedroom house...natural gas heat...no AC...and I pay around $80 per month. If I had to use AC...it would be out of sight. So I would compare it easily to Californa or AZ to prices.
I noticed that every business we walked into seemed positively obsessed about electrical conservation, even to the point of sacraficing what looked to me (an american) like saftey, physical comfort, etc. We were traveling in France and Italy.
Was this all good citizenship? If so, I've got to hand it to them.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.