Double outage at Alexanderplatz

23.06.2015

Yesterday and today, within a timespan of almost twenty hours there was a double outage at Alexanderplatz, affecting among others the Berliner Verlag (publishers of the Berliner Zeitung and Berliner Kurier).

Yesterday and today, within a timespan of almost twenty hours there was a double outage at Alexanderplatz, affecting among others the Berliner Verlag (publishers of the Berliner Zeitung and Berliner Kurier).

The outage was triggered by a short circuit caused by a rat at a grid station in Memhardtstrasse, in the supply area served by Koppenplatz substation. Due to this short circuit, outages occurred in what is known as a "full ring" - i.e. a chain of twelve grid stations in total, served by Koppenplatz substation. Among the 381 households and 112 businesses affected was the Berliner Verlag. The outage occurred at 17:28 and ended at 18:45.

Presumably due to yesterday's disruption, there was another outage this lunchtime at 12:26. This was caused by a defect in a medium voltage cable (10 kV) which connects two of the aforementioned grid stations with one another. It is currently assumed that the cable was affected by the "full ring" disruption the previous evening.

A comment from Stromnetz CEO, Helmar Rendez: "We understand the annoyance of Berliner Verlag and all others who have been affected. Stromnetz Berlin is required to ensure that the city has the best possible energy supply. We sincerely apologise for the fact that this has not been the case for customers on the western side of Alexanderplatz in the past 24 hours. We assume that Berliner Verlag and others will take this outage as an opportunity to take a more active interest in the city's energy supply. This is understandable and to be welcomed. Stromnetz Berlin will make information and resources available to the media over the next few days, which will allow them to make an objective judgment on the quality of the electricity supply in the capital. We are happy to engage with what will no doubt be critical dialogue about Berlin's energy grid in the wake of the double outage."