On Friday, residents of Russia’s Far East experienced widespread blackouts affecting at least two regions, Khabarovsk and Primorye, which includes the city of Vladivostok. This power outage occurred during a previously scheduled emergency response exercise organized by local authorities.
The blackouts disrupted daily life significantly, leaving people stranded in traffic, shopping malls, and elevators. The disruptions were reported across the Primorye and Khabarovsk regions, causing considerable inconvenience to residents.
The Primorye region’s Energy Ministry clarified that the power outages were part of a “scheduled emergency response exercise” designed to simulate a high-voltage power line shutdown. According to the ministry, a situation room was set up to coordinate efforts for restoring power quickly.
Despite these preparations, the Far Eastern Distribution Grid Company DRSK, which was involved in the drills, attributed the outages to an “equipment failure” at one of the units of the Primorskaya thermal power plant. This unexpected malfunction compounded the issues faced during the exercise.
Acting Energy Minister for Primorye, Yelena Shish, described the outage that followed the drill as a “coincidence” in her comments to the Kremlin-affiliated Telegram news channel Shot. Her statement aimed to downplay the situation, suggesting that the outages were not directly related to the emergency drill.
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