2005 Moscow power blackouts

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On 25 May 2005, Moscow's power supplies were the centre of a major incident, which resulted in the supply being outed for several hours in several Moscow regions, including "Podmoskov'ye" (the region directly surrounding Moscow), and also the Tula, Kaluga and Ryazan oblasts. Some tens of thousands of people were trapped in stranded underground trains in the Moscow Metro and in lifts, railway signalling was put out of action and many commercial and governmental organisations were paralysed.

[edit] Where it occurred

The accident, which some accounts state affected around 2,000,000 people, started in Powerstation no.510 "Chagino", situated in the south-east of Moscow in Kuz'minki forest park. Here, the high voltage (500kV) current, going into the capital along magistral pylons, is lowered via transformers for city usage to 220кV and 110кV.

The "Chagino" substation, built in 1964, is equipped with six high-to-low transformers. Another six substations situated around the MKAD (Russian: Московская кольцевая автодорога, Moscow's major orbital highway) carry out the same functions, and form the "Moscow energy ring", which supply Moscow, Podmoskov'ye and neighbouring oblasts with electricity supplies.

[edit] Initial theories of what caused the accident

The immediate cause of the incident, some state, was a mixture of several factors, among which feature: equipment wear-and-tear, absence of back-up powers, the fact that Moscow had endured temperatures above 30°C for a number of days). Moreover, Moscow is a very complex region and has the most complex electrical schemata, or "copper board", as it is known by those in the business. It is the only region in which there has been no automatic shut-off system installed since the fall of the USSR. This increased vulnerability of Moscow's electrical network played an important role in what happened.