The First Facility Management Blog

When a huge chunk of the Northeastern portion of the U.S. was plunged in darkness back in August 2003, it was a little bit scary, a little bit funny, and more than a little bit inconvenient.

Now the same sort of thing has happened in Moscow, right in the middle of an unseasonal heatwave. Russian President Putin is placing the blame on executives at the country’s power monopoly RAO UES, although comparisons to the U.S/Canadian blackout of ‘03 are being played down.

RAO UES CEO Anatoly Chubais described the crisis as worst ever.“Today’s situation is an unprecedented, extremely grave cascade-type failure,” Chubais said.“It is clear already now that the accident began with a fire at the Chagino substation – a facility of key importance to south-bound supply lines,” he said.

Chubais said the power blackout could not be compared with the energy crisis in the United States and Canada in 2003.

“The scale of our incident is immeasurably smaller,” Chubais said.

In his words, 100 power stations were stopped in the U.S. and Canada, “while here it is only 12-13.”

The total number of people who were left without electricity in the U.S. and Canada exceeded 100 million. Here, according to preliminary information, it is 1.5-2 million,” he added.

Chubais said the energy system in the U.S. and Canada had been restored in 26 hours. “We are ready to resume the main electricity supplies within three to four hours, he said.

Criminal proceedings are already in the works; those Russians don’t waste any time.