German authorities probe suspected sabotage after 2 power substation disruptions
Police say the outage cut several lines from service and Amprion reported 4,200 megawatts of coal capacity went offline.
- On Tuesday at 1800 GMT, local police began investigating "PREMEDITATED VANDALISM" at a power substation near Bergheim, marking a second sabotage attempt on Germany's electricity grid within 24 hours.
- Separately, rockets carrying conductive material damaged high-voltage power lines in Brandenburg on Tuesday, as Berlin blamed Russia for a separate attempted drone attack last month amid growing hybrid warfare concerns.
- Electricity grid operator Amprion reported that the interference forced five lignite power plant units with 4,200 MW in combined capacity off the grid, though RWE confirmed a 600 MW block has since been reconnected.
- Brandenburg Interior Minister Jan Redmann noted parallels to a 2024 arson attack at Tesla's German plant while calling for better protection, as Alexander Throm called the timing of disruptive incidents before the weekend election "extremely suspicious."
- E.ON CEO Leonhard Birnbaum warned last month that full protection of grid infrastructure is illusory, noting operators can only make attacks as difficult as possible rather than prevent all sabotage attempts.
150 Articles
150 Articles
A suspected sabotage attack on the power grid is being investigated in Germany. A major police operation has taken place at a power plant west of Cologne. A similar incident on Tuesday is now being investigated as a possible terrorist attack.
In the vicinity of Keln, there were explosions at the substation that destroyed several power units, and the German police do not rule out that the cause could have been a deliberate attack.
On Wednesday, the German authorities reported investigating two attacks on electricity stations on Tuesday, the latest alleged sabotage of the country's critical infrastructure.
A suspicious breakdown in western Germany is also considered a possible act of sabotage, with the trail of "foreign involvement" or "left extremists" investigated by the investigators.
The incident occurred one day after several unknown persons attempted to cause short circuits on very high-voltage power lines near the Jänschwalde coal plant in Brandenburg
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