On Friday, residents of Russia’s Far East experienced widespread power outages following a regionwide emergency response drill.
The blackouts affected the Khabarovsk and Primorye regions, including the city of Vladivostok, leaving many individuals stranded in traffic, shopping malls, and elevators.
The Primorye region’s Energy Ministry confirmed that the outages were linked to a “scheduled emergency response exercise” involving the shutdown of a high-voltage power line.
The exercise was designed to test the region’s preparedness and coordination in handling significant power disruptions.
According to a statement from the ministry, a situation room was set up during the drill to facilitate quick restoration of power to affected consumers.
However, the Far Eastern Distribution Grid Company DRSK, which participated in the exercise, later revealed that the outages were also due to “equipment failure” at one of the units of the Primorskaya thermal power plant.
Acting Primorye Energy Minister Yelena Shish addressed the situation on the Kremlin-linked Telegram news channel Shot, describing the outage following the drill as a “coincidence.” She assured that emergency teams were working diligently to restore power by Friday evening.
Primorye region Governor Oleg Kozhemyako was informed by Shish that efforts were underway to resolve the issues. Kozhemyako also received assurances from the regional water supply company that cold water services would be restored overnight.
Despite these assurances, local media reported that around 600 households in Vladivostok remained without power, while approximately 1,000 residents were without cold water.
Vladivostok, with a population exceeding 600,000, was particularly affected by the disruptions.
The blackouts caused significant inconvenience, with residents facing difficulties in various public spaces and transportation.
The simultaneous occurrence of the power outages and the drill raised concerns about the region’s infrastructure resilience and the effectiveness of emergency response protocols.
As efforts to restore normalcy continue, authorities have emphasized their commitment to addressing the immediate issues and improving systems to prevent similar incidents in the future.
The situation highlights the critical need for robust emergency planning and infrastructure maintenance in handling unforeseen failures.
For now, residents of the affected regions are awaiting full restoration of services and hoping for improvements in the response to such critical situations in the future.