In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, part of Croatia and Albania in the midday hours there was a total collapse of the electric power system. Most of the region was without power and in complete collapse. The reasons are not yet known, and the problem was detected in Montenegro due to an outage in the network of the Montenegrin electricity transmission system. The reasons are still being determined.
At 12:25 p.m., the power went out. Apparently, nothing out of the ordinary. However, very quickly with the spread of information that there is no electricity in the entire country, and then in most of the region – it became clear that the situation is unusual, and the reason is more serious. The region was without electricity for two hours. The electric power system is in complete disintegration. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the first information to the public is provided by Elektroprivreda Bosnia and Herzegovina:
“On June 21, 2024, at 12:25 p.m., there was a total collapse of the electric power system in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Although the exact reasons for the breakdown of the system are not yet known, it is assumed that the cause is overloading on the interconnected 400 kV transmission lines in the region, their outages and the transmission of disturbances to the system of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
The Independent Operator of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which manages the electricity transmission system in the country, advertises in the same way:
“Considering that in today’s circumstances, the disruption has cascaded to Croatia, with which Bosnia and Herzegovina has the largest number of interconnecting transmission lines, it was not possible to prevent the breakdown of the power system of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
In more detail what happened, the profession explains:
“According to the domino effect system, the problem came from the east, entered Bosnia and Herzegovina via the transmission line from Podgorica to Trebinje, and then spread through the 400 kV – the strongest voltage system in Europe – from Trebinje to Gack, then to Mostar, Split, Sarajevo, Tuzla and Banja Luka. When that 400 kV system collapsed, all these cities have tarfo stations and towards a lower voltage level, as the voltage disappeared at 400 kV – then the voltage disappeared at both 110 and 220 and the system collapsed,” explains the energy expert Amer Jerlagic.
As the problem is not directly in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the electric power system, the responsibility is transferred exclusively to Montenegro. Although in the meantime there has been speculation that the culprit could also be the Independent Operator, because it did not correctly predict the required amount of energy, which led to a shortage – as a result of which the collapse occurred. These allegations were denied by the operator’s general director in a telephone conversation, and Jerlagić was of a similar opinion.
“I wouldn’t say that there can be a special responsibility of anyone in the operator, considering that the operator has a schedule announced for today and tomorrow, it is known what the amounts of energy are. It is true that there is high consumption, however, the situation is evident, these days in Bosnia and Herzegovina we have huge temperatures and very low water levels. This means that hydropower plants are practically not working and most of the production was based on thermal capacities, a little on solar and wind. When you don’t have enough production, and when a transmission line like the one that goes from Podgorica to Trebinje goes down, then the system becomes disrupted,” Jerlagić points out.
In entity companies, the message was that it could not be predicted, but immediately after the disappearance, they announced a quick stabilization of the system. Causes, reasons and responsibility, however, later. For now, everyone is focused on establishing a complete and stable supply of electricity.
The first address for the origin of the problem was Montenegro, the accusations angered the Montenegrin minister
The problem and the reason were sought from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia to Montenegro. The first information available to the public says that the problem originated in Montenegro. The accusations angered Montenegrins. Preliminary results were announced by Croatia, they say everything started between Greece and Albania. Serbia is the only one spared from today’s collapse.
A hellish day in the countries of the region. In addition to record high temperatures, the power system broke down around noon. As a result, almost all of Montenegro, parts of Croatia and Albania, as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina remained without electricity.
From the Croatian transmission system operator, they said that, according to preliminary information, everything started with the outage of the transmission line between Greece and Albania. Then, they say, the flows were disrupted.
“We had an outage in the electric power system, not only in ours, but in international frameworks, considering that Bosnia and Herzegovina, part of Croatia, Montenegro and Albania were out of power. The details and causes are being determined,” said Croatian Economy Minister Ante Šušnjar.
The Croatian transmission system operator states that they are conducting an analysis with colleagues from neighboring countries in order to determine the cause of the historical breakdown of the power system.
“For the investigation of such incidents at the European level, so-called expert panels are established, and the expected investigation time is six months,” said Danko Blažević, director of the Electricity System Management Sector at the Croatian Transmission System Operator.
Information also appeared that the power outage in the region was caused by a large fire on a transmission line in inaccessible terrain between Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The National Dispatch Center of the Electric Transmission System of Montenegro says that it is still being investigated, but they add that it is easily possible.
Although the exact reasons for the breakdown of the power system are not yet known, it is assumed that one of the causes could be overloading on the interconnecting transmission lines.
“We are witnessing the regional disaster that happened in the power system, and to accuse Montenegro of being guilty of it would be extremely wrong. The problem arose as a result of a very large increase in daily load on the one hand, and very high temperatures. When you have these two interrelated causes, then you have a situation where you cannot properly transmit electricity through transmission lines,” emphasized the Minister of Energy and Mining of Montenegro Saša Mujović.
Due to the power outage in all major cities, there were traffic jams on the roads. Traffic lights were not working, and neither were many shops. Disruptions in the water supply were also recorded, and it should be noted that in most of the cities that were left without electricity, a temperature of 40 degrees Celsius was recorded.
Serbia was spared today’s hell. Elektromreza Serbia announced that the electricity system in that country is stable. They say the transmission lines are in operation and there are no problems, Federalna writes.
