Power Restored at Russian Nuclear Plant After Widespread Outages

Updated with restrictions in Krasnodar.

Power was restored across southern Russia early Wednesday after a malfunction at a major nuclear plant the day before led to sweeping outages and emergency restrictions across the region.

A power unit at the Rostov nuclear plant automatically shut down on Tuesday afternoon due to a “false alarm” in the turbine generator’s safety system, according to the state operator Rosenergoatom.

Rosenergoatom said the plant’s crew “established and promptly resolved the cause” of the malfunction later that evening. By Wednesday morning, the 4,071-megawatt nuclear plant was supplying 2,800 megawatts of electricity from three of its operating units, with a fourth unit undergoing planned maintenance that began in June.

Russia’s Energy Ministry said in a short statement that it “continues to monitor the energy supply situation in regions experiencing abnormally high temperatures.”

Deputy Energy Minister Yevgeny Grabchak told state media that the authorities may be forced to reintroduce temporary restrictions on power usage if problems persist due to an ongoing heatwave. Temperatures in the Rostov region capital of Rostov-on-Don were forecast to soar as high as 38 degrees Celsius (100 Fahrenheit) on Wednesday afternoon.

Besides the southern Rostov region, Tuesday’s outages linked to the Rostov nuclear plant were reported in the Krasnodar region, the republics of Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachayevo-Cherkessia, as well as in annexed Crimea.

“The power system is now at its maximum capacity,” Grabchak was quoted as saying by Interfax. “For the first time in the energy system’s existence, the summer maximum energy consumption exceeded that of winter.”

Later on Wednesday, the mayor of the southern city of Krasnodar announced power usage restrictions for the next three days “to avoid overloading” the power grid.