70 percent of Berlin households could have their electricity cut off this winter
By Romegas
The Berliner Zeitung reports that the Berlin authorities are preparing for a power and gas outage in the winter with several scenarios being contemplated.
According to the report, the Berlin Senate and the state-owned Berlin Energie und Netzholding have raised the possibility that up to 70 percent of households could regularly end up temporarily having no electricity in winter. As the Tagesspiegel also reports , State Secretary Torsten Akmann and Energy State Secretary Tino Schopf (both SPD) discussed several scenarios in the event that the gas supply is no longer possible at the end of August with representatives of the police, fire brigade, and Berlin Energie Netzholding.
The Berlin network holding company is anticipating that when there is a lack of gas, households will heat more with fan heaters and other electrical devices, which could triple electricity consumption. The result would be an overload of the sub-grids and transformer stations, which would be severely damaged after a short time. In order to prevent this, partial networks in Berlin would have to be switched off temporarily. Power cuts would be announced beforehand for individual districts and neighbourhoods, on an area-based rotation policy. The affected households would then have no electricity for several hours. If the sub-grids and distribution grids are damaged, there is a risk of a longer power outage.
The German Association of Towns and Municipalities had previously warned of possible widespread power outages in Germany in view of the energy crisis. “There is a risk of a blackout,” said managing director Gerd Landsberg at the weekend of the world on Sunday. He specifically warned of the risk of “overloading the power grid – for example, if the 650,000 fan heaters sold this year go online if the gas supply should fail“.
The Berlin police are also preparing for a blackout . According to a report in the Bild newspaper, the authority even expects unrest if the energy supply collapses. A paper is now being drawn up in which it is gradually regulated what should happen in an emergency. The authorities are assuming three levels of escalation: inflation, shortage, and failure. According to the report, strategies are to be developed for all three phases.
Germany once the powerhouse of Europe risks the collapse of its industry and economy, with the possibility of mass insurrection as a consequence.
Decades of myopic EU Energy policy and Green politics have come home to roost.