After Berlin outage, union chief warns more blackouts are coming

Berlin may have restored power to thousands of consumers after the recent cable attack, but German cities should expect more major outages if the state’s crisis response is not drastically improved, warns the civil servants’ union dbb.

“Berlin has shown that we are not prepared for crises of this kind. It’s a disaster,” union chairman Volker Geyer told the Rheinische Post newspaper in comments published on Saturday.

There must be an urgent review of whether the control mechanisms and legal requirements that apply to operators of critical infrastructure are sufficient, he said.

“What happened in Berlin could happen anywhere else at any time – in Cologne, Stuttgart or Munich. The state must not allow itself to be made to look so foolish,” warned Geyer.

The population expects the authorities to be capable of acting in crisis situations, added the head of Germany’s largest union for public servants and employees in related private sectors, with more than 1.2 million members.

An arson attack on power cables, presumably by left-wing extremists, caused a widespread power outage in south-west Berlin from Saturday to Wednesday.

Around 100,000 people were left without electricity, heating, internet and mobile phone services as the mercury dipped well below zero degrees Celsius.

Privatization undermining preparedness

The dbb chief cited the privatization of critical infrastructure as the reason for the state’s helplessness.

Supplying individual facilities such as hospitals or nursing homes with emergency power generators is vital, Christian Schuchardt, head of the German City Council, told the Rheinische Post.

“It would be even better if we could use mobile power plants to supply entire neighbourhoods with heat and electricity,” he added.

30,000 households without power after grid attack paralyses SW Berlin

Some 30,000 residents of Berlin, Germany, were left without power and heating for a third day after a weekend attack on the grid crippled supply in the south-west of the snow-covered German capital.

Some 45,000 households and over 2,200 businesses in the city’s Nikolassee, Zehlendorf, Wannsee and Lichterfelde neighbourhoods were cut off early on Saturday after cables leading to a power station were set ablaze by what Berlin authorities say was a group of left-wing militants.