Greece’s grid operator DEDIE and Public Power Corporation PPC said that they will compensate customers with discounts on the bills due to power outages caused by the snow weather. Approximately 1,000 households are still without electricity in the northern suburbs of Athens on Saturday, following the snow falls on Monday and Tuesday. Teams of grid operator DEDIE work to restore power that left initially a total of 70,000 households without electricity, heating, telephone and water .
DEDIE announced on Friday that it will grant a 10% discount on February bills to those households and businesses affected by the outages.
On its part, Greece’s Public Power Corporation PPC/DEH said that it will grant a 30% discount on its customers’ bills for the same month.
So far, there has been no similar discount offered by private power companies, though.
Government and state agencies blamed the snow weather for the outages, citing as major cause “the worst weather in 40 years” and the fallen branches and whole trees on power poles.
Some of the poles are still wooden in 2021.
Opposition parties have blamed the state mechanism’s response for the disaster, saying that the government was not prepared even though warned in time by meteorologists.
According to a DEDIE announcement on Friday a total of 100,000 households were affected by the power outages due to snow weather Medea in northern Athens and Attica, northern Evia and the Sporades islands and Ioannina, Epirus.
50 power poles broke down
40 Medium Voltage pipes were cut
Attica
87 Medium voltage (MV) lines suffered damages in the northern suburbs of Athens
On Tuesday, Feb 16, approximately 30,000 housεholds had not power, and their number increased to 70,000 on the following day.
The vast majority of damage is due to falling branches or entire trees on power lines.
In Attica alone, about 1,500 trees fell, causing serious network problems. In total, there were 250 km of damage to the MV lines.
It is indicative that more than 50 MV poles broke, about 40 MV pipelines were cut, while more than 40 MV substations were severely damaged.
Respectively, in the low voltage network (LV), since the beginning of the bad weather, more than 3,000 damages occurred and more than 5,000 meters of cables in Attica were destroyed.
The DEDIE crews that were employed to repair the damage were constantly reinforced with additional staff.
Οnf Friday, February 19, a total 153 teams consisting of 683 people and with over 300 vehicles and construction machinery, are working to repair the damages.
Damages have been repaired in most areas, while the total repair is expected to be almost completed by night
Central Greece (Evia, Magnesia, Sporades islands)
In the regions of Central Greece and in the islands of the Sporades, the power supply problems started gradually from the night of Sunday, February 14th.
In total, 20,000 households were affected by weather front Medea.. Approximately 6 km of Medium and Low Votlage network and 70 poles were replaced.
Epirus
The biggest problems occurred in the area of Ioannina. A total of 94 km of network damage occurred, affecting almost 2,500 homes. HEDNO crews (91 people) made 537 interventions to repair the problems and replaced 8 poles.
Trees falling on power lines will still break the lines no matter what the poles are made of. Is the solution to get rid of trees?!