Sixth day ENERGO-PRO emergency teams fight with the winter element

All the time, the electricity distribution company works in cooperation with municipalities and town halls

For six days, the winter weather put the electricity grid in North-East Bulgaria to severe tests. Wires torn by ice and strong wind, fallen poles and broken insulators, roads closed by snow drifts and fallen tree branches are just some of the challenges facing ENERGO-PRO emergency teams as they repair the damage on the network.

While electricians dealt with the numerous failures to restore power to thousands of families in dozens of settlements, blizzards continued to tear wires in new areas and leave other villages without power. “We are hiring additional teams. The boys work around the clock, but new and new accidents continue to occur. The wires are icy, they are heavy and the strong wind breaks them.”, says Eng. Dimitar Dimitrov, Head of Network Measurement Area in the “Villa Zones” Department in Varna.

During the days of the crisis, the power distribution company mobilized more than 400 teams, equipped with full working equipment and 250 off-road and specialized vehicles to deal with the difficult situation.

With the help of municipalities and town halls, the teams managed to make their way through the snowdrifts to reach the hard-to-reach places of the failed facilities. In one of the most affected settlements, the village of Kamenar near Varna, the mayor Svetoslav Raykov provided agricultural equipment for cleaning the road in order to speed up the work of the teams to eliminate the accident. Here is what Mr. Raykov shared on January 27 (Monday): “Yesterday evening an accident occurred, the electricity in the village stopped. I contacted the area manager, Eng. Dimitrov. Despite the difficult road conditions, the team was able to get there within an hour. It turned out that there were a lot of torn wires. They tried to fix the accident immediately, but because of the very strong wind they could not. Today, 4 teams work in the village. We are in very good coordination with the team that supports Kamenar. When there is a problem, they turn to me for assistance or I turn to them, but the most important thing is that they take measures to fix it.”

The complicated road situation made it difficult to work on the report of consumed electricity of ENERGO-PRO customers. More than 300 accountants of the company are trying to reach all addresses on schedule in order to report the electricity meters on time.

Here you can find footage of the winter situation in North-East Bulgaria:

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoSriSPyWFB6qMHr-nQJrFQ