Almost the entire territory of Moldova was left without electricity, the country’s authorities said. According to the official version, the outage was the result of disruptions in Ukraine’s power system.
As clarified by Moldova’s Ministry of Energy, “on the morning of Saturday, January 31, due to serious problems in Ukraine’s energy network, there was a voltage drop on the 400-kV Isaccea–Vulcanesti—MGRES transmission line, which led to an emergency shutdown of the power system.”
Chisinau Mayor Ion Ceban said that a power outage occurred in the Moldovan capital for reasons that remain unclear. He urged police to promptly deploy patrols to intersections and take over traffic control where traffic lights have stopped working. “We strongly urge the police to go to intersections and regulate traffic where traffic lights are not functioning,” Ceban wrote on his Facebook page.
According to him, trolleybus services were suspended in several parts of the city due to the lack of electricity. The mayor also said that he “is asking central authorities to provide clarifications on the situation” and appealed to residents to remain calm.
Energy Minister Shmyhal said that “today at 10:42 AM a technical malfunction occurred, involving the simultaneous shutdown of the 400 kV line between the power systems of Romania and Moldova and the 750 kV line between the western and central parts of Ukraine.” According to him, this triggered cascading outages across Ukraine’s power grid and the activation of automatic protection systems at substations, leading to the shutdown of nuclear power plant units. He specified that special emergency outage schedules have been introduced in Kyiv, as well as in the Kyiv, Zhytomyr, and Kharkiv regions, while Ukrenergo specialists are carrying out restoration work. “Electricity will be restored within the next few hours,” the minister said.