There are blackouts in major cities in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.
Heating has been shut down in several quarters of the Kyrgyz capital, traffic lights and ATMs are not working. The subway has stopped in the Uzbek capital, flights are not accepted at the airport, the water pressure in the pipelines has dropped and mobile phone services have stopped.
In December, the lights were still shining in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek
Photo: VYACHESLAV OSELEDKO / AFP
The networks of the three countries have been interconnected since Soviet times, and the system is also connected to the Russian electricity network through Kazakhstan, with which, in principle, it is possible to compensate for unexpected shortcomings.
But on Tuesday, the pipeline connecting densely populated southern Kazakhstan and its neighbors to power plants in northern Kazakhstan and the Russian grid collapsed, and the entire network was shut down, due to the emergency.
The avalanche was first detected in the largest city of Kazakhstan, Almaty and its province. According to the local government, the outage was caused by a voltage drop in one of the lines of the Kazakh energy company KEGOK and a breakdown of automatic systems at substations.
Almaty city administration says it is already working on a reconnection, with authorities in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan reporting power plants restarting after the emergency shutdown, but local operators are not yet connected to the Central Asian network. (via MTI)
