Millions of people were left without electricity, the three theories that caused havoc in the Balkans

Just before 1pm on Friday, Western Balkan countries began reporting massive power outages.

Croatia announced first, then Bosnia and Herzegovina and finally Albania and Montenegro. It soon became clear that it was a major regional power collapse.

There were also traffic problems, as many traffic lights were not working. After an hour, power began to return to regional towns. There is no official information on how the collapse happened, but three theories are the most prevalent.

There was a massive blackout in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and Albania. Most of Dalmatia was left without electricity around 12:25 p.m., Croatian media reported.

Power outage, then chaos

Split, Omiš, Makarska, Dubrovnik and Zhupa Dubrovačka, Kashtela, Solin, Vodice, Prvij, Zara, Starigrad Paklenica, many islands remained without electricity.

In Split, the traffic lights did not work, which caused a collapse in traffic. There was no electricity in any part of Albania and emergency services sirens were constantly heard in Split, reports Hina.

Soon it was announced that almost the entire area of ​​Montenegro is without electricity, except for Zhabljak and Pljevlja. As "Dalmatin Portal" has announced, a system failure occurred in Montenegro, due to which Dalmatia was also left without electricity.

Elektroprivreda BiH told the "Klix" portal that the reason for the interruption of electricity supply was the interruption of transmission lines in the region and the transfer of concerns to the BiH system.

As the Hina agency unofficially learned from the Croatian transmission system operator, there was a breakdown of the electricity grid in three countries - first it started in Montenegro, then the blackout affected Bosnia and Herzegovina and then part of Croatia - all Dalmatia to Rijeka, supposedly at the Brinja substation.

According to Hina, there has never been a breakdown of the electric power system in three states. The cause is not yet known, until now it is speculated that consumption dropped due to high temperatures and that the system collapsed at one point, nova.rs reports.

The Minister of Energy and Mines of Montenegro, Sasha Mujovic, said that the defect that caused the power outage in the Balkans is of a regional nature, but that the electricity reaches CEDIS, which is working to reconnect all the cities.

The Executive Director of the Electric Transmission System of Montenegro (CGES), Ivan Asanović, has officially told "Vijesti" that due to concerns on a regional scale, there has been a loss of voltage in the entire territory of Montenegro, except for the north, after interruption and interruptions of the largest proportions have also occurred in neighboring countries - Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina and a significant part of Croatia.

Mujovic told "Vijesti" that it is not yet known where exactly the failure occurred because all CGES operators have pledged to restore the system.

"The failure occurred as a result of a heavy load, a sudden increase in energy consumption due to the high temperature and the high temperatures themselves. As soon as we have a high temperature, it immediately happens that the air cooling of the airline lines is weak and then the high load and high temperatures cause the line to fall and break", Mujovic explained.

He added that the power system has been restored and that everything should return to normal soon.

“Electricity reaches CEDIS and there is a job to connect the cities. It might take some time because it has to release city by city, it can't do it all at once. The downside is that at the time the failure occurred, all consumers remained connected. We hope that at the time of switching on there will not be a large load and it will not cause new interruptions", Mujovic said.

Theories about the cause of the collapse

As many officials have said so far, the exact cause of the collapse is unknown. However, at the moment, three theories stand out the most as to why there was a massive disruption in the Balkans.

The most dominant is that the failure started in Montenegro and then spread to other countries.

The crews of the Electric Transmission System of Montenegro (CGES) have observed a large fire in a 400 kilowatt transmission line in inaccessible terrain on the Montenegrin border with Gack in Bosnia and Herzegovina, "Vijesti" reports today.

The CGES teams want to reach the place where the fire was discovered as soon as possible to repair a major fault in the electrical transmission network, for this reason they will also need to hire a helicopter unit.

A source from CGES confirmed that the fire was the result of a regional fault.

On the other hand, Albania says that the electricity has stopped due to a defect in the interconnection line with Greece, caused by high temperatures.

In the end, it is most likely that a combination of three factors led to the collapse – high temperatures, grid failure, increased consumption due to heat, but it is still not known from which place it started. /Telegraph/