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Power cuts strike Western Europe Bid to overhaul Europe power grid
(about 1 hour later)
Power cuts have struck several countries in Western Europe, leaving millions of people without electricity. Italy's prime minister has said Europe needs a central power authority to prevent the kind of blackouts that left swathes of West Europe without energy.
Power companies said the outage started in Germany with a surge in demand prompted by cold weather, and then spread to other parts of Europe. An overload in Germany's power network triggered outages leaving millions without electricity on Saturday night.
Some five million people in France lost power, mainly in the east of the country and including parts of Paris. Romano Prodi said there was a "contradiction" in having a unified power network but no central authority.
Power failed first in Cologne, Germany, before shutting down across parts of France, Italy, Spain and Austria.
Belgium, the Netherlands and Croatia were also affected.
"My first impression is that there is a contradiction between having European networks but not having a central European authority. It is somewhat absurd," Mr Prodi said.
Transmission failure
German utility provider E.ON said early investigations suggested the supply failures were caused by overloads in the power network in northwest of the country, according to Reuters.
The power outages were quickly restored in most cases but in some of the worst incidences:
  • In Paris, firefighters responded to nearly 40 calls from people stuck in lifts as the city lost power
  • Scores of trains were delayed in Germany's industrial Ruhr region for up to two hours
  • The Italian regions of Piedmont, Liguria and Puglia lost energy overnight between 2100 and 2200 GMT
  • In Spain, power was lost in the cities of Madrid, Barcelona, Zaragoza and parts of the Andalucia region.
    • European blackout risk
    E.ON said the power failures may have been linked to a line across a river being switched off to allow a ship to pass through safely, Reuters reported.
    France was one of the worst affected, with five million losing power mainly in the east of the country and the capital, Paris, and its suburbs.
    "We weren't very far from a European blackout," a senior director with French power company RTE said."We weren't very far from a European blackout," a senior director with French power company RTE said.
    Pierre Bornard told the French news agency AFP that two German high-voltage transmission lines failed, causing problems across western Europe.
    This triggered a "house of cards" style system breakdown, he said.
    Automatic security systems cut supplies to some customers to avoid a complete blackout.
    Italy, Belgium and Spain were also affected by the power cuts.
    Most electricity supplies were restored within two hours of the outage, and so far no injuries or accidents have been reported.Most electricity supplies were restored within two hours of the outage, and so far no injuries or accidents have been reported.
    Fire brigades in France said they had to answer several calls from people stuck in lifts. The worst recent power blackout struck Italy in 2003, plunging the country into darkness for 18 hours between 28 and 29 September.
    High speed rail links were also disrupted.