Old wires mean extra tears: power engineers reveal the reasons for the Yaroslavl blackout

As of mid-day on January 2, there was no electricity in 14 small settlements in the region. 17 repair teams are working to eliminate power line breaks, the regional administration reported. The day before, on the first day of 2024, there were no power grids connected 35 villages and hamlets, and on December 31, there were problems with electricity in ten municipalities (districts) of the region.

“According to the algorithm that has already been worked out, we will attract forestry workers to help the energy workers, who will also be engaged in filing fallen trees,” promised the regional governor Mikhail Evraev at the height of the disaster. – The leaders need to open temporary accommodation centers for residents. They may not be needed, but people should be able to move if necessary. In addition, it is necessary to provide power generators to the affected areas. The temperature is dropping, and all restoration work must be completed as quickly as possible.”

The two main reasons for the disruption of power supply in the region these days are freezing rain, which caused breaks in power lines, and trees fallen on the same wires by heavy snowfall, workers of the region’s energy networks told MK. After the cyclone that passed over the region on December 23-24 last year, electricity was lost in many settlements of Bolsheselsky, Borisoglebsky, Gavrilov-Yamsky, Rostovsky, Myshkinsky, Nekouzsky, Yaroslavlsky, Rybinsky, Uglichsky districts and in the urban district of Pereslavl-Zalessky.

In addition to the regular crews of the energy networks of the Yaroslavl region, specialists from other regions came to eliminate the consequences of the accident – Kostroma, Tver, Smolensk, Oryol regions, and from Udmurtia, Rosseti reported. Moreover, in some areas – Borisoglebsky, Rostov, Rybinsk and Pereslavl-Zalessky – an emergency regime has been introduced, which has not yet been lifted.

Numerous power line breaks are being repaired, but at the same time new accidents are arising: for example, on January 1, power supply was restored in Bolsheselsky, Uglichsky, Gavrilov-Yamsky districts, but problems appeared in Tutaevsky and Poshekhonsky. “We continue to work in an intensive mode until the problems in all settlements are completely eliminated,” said the head of the region.

“The work is tedious and hard, especially considering the frosts are well below minus twenty,” one of the employees of the Borisoglebsky district regional power grid (RES) told MK. – There may be ten or more kilometers of air line to the village, and at this distance there are up to twenty cliffs. Freezing rain is a natural disaster, it happened this year, no one is to blame.

True, this “no one is to blame” applies primarily to the main power lines – those that go to villages and therefore are maintained in order. But within the boundaries of populated areas it happens “differently”: for example, in some places power lines pass through private property, in some places wooden (pretty rotten, sometimes rickety) poles have been preserved. Clippings happen more often here.

“Every year we warn site owners that it is necessary to cut down trees that may, if they fall, touch poles or wires,” said a RES employee. – But if on municipal land we can cut trees ourselves, then private owners must do it themselves, and there are always problems with this.

Now trees are being cut down to eliminate accidents not only by fitters and forestry workers, but also by volunteers. Community mechanisms characteristic of natural emergencies have come into play: volunteers bring warm food to the crews working at the ELP. And the heads of some districts – like, for example, Ainash Kislyakova in Borisoglebsky – even recorded New Year’s addresses in “emergency mode”, to the sound of generators.

At the same time, a number of social network users blame the energy workers themselves for the blackout: chronically “underserved” networks (including the same rickety poles and unsawed trees), they say, could not withstand the pressure of the elements. “The electrical substation was built in 1970 and its capacity is not enough,” write residents of the village of Vyoska, Voshchazhnikovsky settlement. – The village is getting upset, families are growing, there are more household appliances. Voltage surges are unsafe…”

“As the daughter of an employee of the Distribution Zone, it’s terribly offensive for me to read such posts,” retorts another social media user. – Dad was called at 5 in the morning, since then he has been on his feet, did not eat, did not drink, did not come home. Let’s all be patient! There are very few of them, the area is large, help is coming from the region, we hope for the best

No matter who is to blame for this, power outages in the Yaroslavl region will be remembered for a long time. There was no light and communication, in particular, in the “tourist” Rostov and Pereslavl districts, where many thousands of Moscow summer residents and those who moved from the capital “for permanent residence” live. What happened forced those who had not yet thought about their own “energy security” to think about it now.

“A gasoline or diesel generator with a power of 3 kW or more is a necessary thing in our conditions,” says electrician Nikolai Tyurin, who works in the Moscow and Yaroslavl regions. – It is necessary to keep the battery “in good shape” if this generator is with an electric starter, otherwise you will have to start the device “jerking” in the cold. It is also good to equip a permanent connection for this generator: a separate room where its noise will not disturb anyone, an exhaust pipe outlet into the atmosphere, a connection to the home power wiring. The latter requires the work of a qualified electrician.

It is possible to assemble a circuit in which a shutdown of centralized electricity automatically starts the generator. You should also think about uninterruptible power supply devices for modern gas boilers and smart home devices, if such are installed. Otherwise, in the event of a power outage, the house may be left without “standby” heating (and this, with water as a coolant, can mean damage to the batteries) and without remote control.