Hotline of power engineering specialists:
On the morning of the 21st of June 2016 a storm warning was signalled in the entire territory of the Smolensk region. According to weather forecasters there are thunderstorms expected till the end of the day and night through 22.06 west of Smolensk region, with increasing southern wind quarter, gusts up to 12-17 m/s. In some areas of the region there is deterioration in the weather conditions - passing storm fronts, accompanied by rain and strengthening winds.
Difficult weather conditions caused disturbances in the grid of IDGC of Centre - Smolenskenergo division, which led to the disruption of power supply to consumers.
Currently, Smolenskenergo’s experts are actively performing emergency repair work to eliminate the technological violations, where the supply of electricity was interrupted by the bad weather. To reduce the time of elimination of the bad weather consequences additional first responding crews from neighbouring branches of IDGC of Centre - Tverenergo and Bryanskenergo have been sent to the Smolensk region.
Today by the end of the day the core grid will be restored, tomorrow during the day distribution networks will be restored.
The most massive outages were recorded in the city of Dorogobuzh, settlement of Izdeshkovo, as well as on the territory of Gagarinsky, Safonovsky, Vyazemsky, Smolensky and Novoduginsky districts of the region. Power grids of the western districts -Demidovsky, Rudnyansky, Velizhsky districts were almost not affected by the wind, the bad weather did not touch Ershichsky district. "According to the stories of eyewitnesses, the wind blew roofs off, broke poles, in Vyazma a whole street was covered with broken trees. We continuously conduct operational and reconstruction work, which will continue until the full restoration of power supply to all consumers. By lunchtime the bad weather reached the eastern districts of the region, where there is a thunderstorm and rain now," commented Deputy Chief Engineer for Operational, Technological and Situational Management - Head of the Grid Control Centre of Smolenskenergo Sahib Bruno.
At 1:00 p.m. IDGC of Centre - Smolenskenergo division introduced the high alert operation mode. The company has a crisis management centre in operation under the chairmanship of Director of the branch Sabir Agamaliev. Specialists of the branch are continuously collecting actual meteorological data in districts where large power facilities are located, have organized more often control of the operation of equipment of substations, provided the operational readiness of personnel to perform first responding and restoration operations.
For the convenience of consumers 13 temporary information centres have been opened in Roslavlsky, Safonovsky, Dorogobuzhsky, Yelninsky, Smolensky, Vyazmensky, Novoduginsky, Gagarinsky, Shumyachsky, Pochinoksky, Ugransky, Temkinsky and Sychevsky Distribution Zones of Smolenskenergo, whose employees accept calls of consumers.
For more information on the progress of restoration work, please, contact the around the clock telephone direct line of power engineers at 8-800-50-50-115. The call is toll free.