Will power outages in Europe affect Turkey? Minister Bayraktar responds

A widespread power outage that occurred in Western Europe yesterday afternoon brought life to a standstill in many countries, primarily Spain, Portugal, France, and Belgium. While the outages caused major disruptions in transportation and healthcare services, the Spanish government declared a state of emergency.

This major outage has also caused concern in Turkey. Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Alparslan Bayraktar stated that they are connected to the same energy system as Europe, noting that there is a possibility that Turkey could also be affected.

CITIES PLUNGED INTO DARKNESS  

Public transportation systems stopped in the regions affected by the outage. Thousands of people were stranded for hours, particularly on metro lines. Chaos ensued in urban traffic as traffic lights became non-functional. There were also disruptions in the healthcare system. In some hospitals, planned surgeries were canceled due to the failure of electrically powered equipment.

POWER GRADUALLY RESTORED TOWARD MORNING  

The outage lasted for nearly the entire day. Toward morning, positive news began to arrive from some countries, especially Spain. It was announced that transformers were being gradually brought back online. However, experts are of the opinion that an outage spreading over such a wide area has brought structural problems in Europe's energy infrastructure to light.

TURKEY COULD ALSO BE AFFECTED    

It was learned that the issue was brought up during the cabinet meeting held at the Presidential Complex. According to a report by Sputnik, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Alparslan Bayraktar briefed cabinet members on the crisis in Europe. Bayraktar emphasized that while Turkey is not currently affected, the risk exists because the system is shared.

A SIMILAR OUTAGE HAD OCCURRED IN TURKEY  

Turkey experienced a power crisis of similar magnitude on March 31, 2015. On that date, many cities, including Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Trabzon, and Diyarbakir, were left without electricity for 6 to 12 hours. 

News Source: 12punto