Outage leaves Swedish town without any heat
A power outage at a district heating plant in northern Sweden cut off heat to nearly all of Sollefteå's 8,000 residents on Sunday night as temperatures dropped below minus 25 degrees Celsius.
Heaters suddenly went cool around 6pm on Sunday night in 400 apartment buildings, several nursing homes, and a hospital due to a cable malfunction at the heating plant.
“There was great concern that the patients and elderly would have problems because the temperature dropped quickly due to the cold,” Torbjörn Larsson, a spokesperson for power company Eon, told the TT news agency.
The district heating system was down for more than six hours because crews were unable to start up the reserve power system at the plant.
Around 1am Monday morning, the heating system was functioning again at the hospital, personnel from the emergency ward told TT.
"By then, Eon staff had found another cable that could supply the district heating plant with electricity,” said Larsson.
“Basically all of Sollefteå's 8,000 residents were without heat.”
Temperatures plunged inside buildings throughout the city due to the prolonged outage.
Eon expected it would take all night and much of Monday before temperatures at the hospital, apartments, and nursing homes returned to normal.
“We're operating at a higher capacity than normal to accelerate the warming. And there is a risk that some customers won't get heat tonight,” said Larsson.
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Heaters suddenly went cool around 6pm on Sunday night in 400 apartment buildings, several nursing homes, and a hospital due to a cable malfunction at the heating plant.
“There was great concern that the patients and elderly would have problems because the temperature dropped quickly due to the cold,” Torbjörn Larsson, a spokesperson for power company Eon, told the TT news agency.
The district heating system was down for more than six hours because crews were unable to start up the reserve power system at the plant.
Around 1am Monday morning, the heating system was functioning again at the hospital, personnel from the emergency ward told TT.
"By then, Eon staff had found another cable that could supply the district heating plant with electricity,” said Larsson.
“Basically all of Sollefteå's 8,000 residents were without heat.”
Temperatures plunged inside buildings throughout the city due to the prolonged outage.
Eon expected it would take all night and much of Monday before temperatures at the hospital, apartments, and nursing homes returned to normal.
“We're operating at a higher capacity than normal to accelerate the warming. And there is a risk that some customers won't get heat tonight,” said Larsson.
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