Untsukul Hospital staff have achieved normalization of electricity supply

After the Untsukul hospital staff contacted the authorities regarding the power outages, the power supply was restored, local residents said. They believe that the power outages are largely due to mining.

As reported by Kavkazsky Uzel, regular power outages paralyze the work of the Central District Hospital outpatient clinic in the Untsukul district, which is completely electronic. The hospital staff appealed to the district leadership, Rosseti, and deputies of the district assembly and the parliament of Dagestan with a request to stop the outages.

An employee of the medical institution, on condition of anonymity, told a “Caucasian Knot” correspondent that frequent power outages limit the ability to work: there is no way to issue sick leave certificates on time or keep full records of patients in real time. Doctors are forced to see patients in "manual mode" and then, after the power supply is restored, enter all the information into the system, which increases the load and reduces the efficiency of work.

Representatives of "Dagenergo" responded to the request, the power supply was restored, he said.

The head doctor of the Untsukulskaya Central District Hospital Aishat Magomedova told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the power supply has currently been restored, the cause of the outages, according to power engineers, was a faulty transformer. "Doctors can receive patients and provide the necessary assistance without electricity, the lack of electricity only affects the entry of necessary information into the electronic system," Magomedova said.

She added that power outages do not affect surgeries and other emergency medical care, since the hospital has a generator.

The Dagenergo Unified Contact Center reported on August 28 in its Telegram channel that, in connection with the spread of messages on social networks about the situation with the power supply in the Untsukulsky District, specialists from the district electrical networks department arrived at the scene to clarify the circumstances. "An inspection of the electrical equipment showed that the voltage is normal, the equipment is in good working order, and the transformer capacity is sufficient for a stable power supply to the medical institution. The management of the RES confirmed that the situation is under control and all requests will be promptly processed by specialists. The hospital administration is recommended to promptly inform the Untsukul branch of the Gumbetovsky RES, which services this territory, about all failures in the power grid," the publication says.

A resident of Untsukul, Rasul, told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that power outages in the village and in the region are frequent. This does not affect the receipt of medical care so much, he clarified.

"Considering that there is no natural gas in the village, power outages affect people's lives. There is no mobile Internet, cellular communication inside the village works intermittently, food in the refrigerator and stores spoils,” the man said.

A resident of the Untsukulsky district, Magomedsalam, told a correspondent of the “Caucasian Knot” that there are frequent power outages in the villages of the district, according to
local residents, they may be related to the transfer of local power grids to another supplier, and illegal mining.

The head of Dagestan, Sergei Melikov, earlier ordered to check the Untsukul RES and restore order, the Telegram channel of the administration of the head of Dagestan reported. According to Melikov, residents linked the delay in restoring electricity supply to the transfer of local networks to Gumbetovsky RES and the dismissal of employees, demanding that the merger be canceled.

"The main reason for the optimization of the local organization, according to Dagenergo, was inefficient work: in Untsukul - 80% of energy losses with payment collection only 53%. The situation is aggravated by illegal mining. To date, 35 out of 38 employees have quit, refusing to work under the new name, and their actions, including unauthorized shutdowns, interfered with repairs. Funds for 80% of electricity did not reach Dagenergo, although local residents paid for services. Instead of helping emergency teams - rallies. I ask that all employees be checked, including those who quit and were laid off. The results of the audit should be made public," Melikov was quoted as saying in a message dated August 5.

Previously the former head of Dagenergo Arsen Gadzhiev explained the reason for the overload of the power grid in the Untsukulsky district. “We chose two villages for testing: Balakhani and Maidanskoye in the Untsukulsky district. These are ordinary Dagestani villages, where residents often complain about power outages and demand a solution to the problem. Over the past two years, the 110 kV Maidanskoye transformer substation has been overloaded by 60%. A significant increase in consumption is also recorded at the 110 kV Novy Irganay substation. We conducted a simple but clear test: we turned off the Internet in these villages for a short time with the support of the Association of Providers and Mobile Operators, and then measured the load on the power grid. The results shocked us. As soon as the Internet was turned off, the load on the network dropped by 3.2 megawatts. According to experts, this means that about 900 mining machines can operate in these two villages. To understand: 3.2 megawatts is the power that can provide power supply to 1,500 houses. There are 849 personal accounts (households) registered in these villages. However, the substation serves not only these houses, but also mining equipment, which in terms of consumption is equivalent to the power required for 1,500 houses. This leads to low voltage and frequent outages, ”Gadzhiev said in his Telegram channel on March 24.

In May 2025, an illegal mining farm was discovered in a private house in the village of Untsukul, Untsukulsky District, Dagestan. According to preliminary data, the damage from the theft of electricity amounted to 702 thousand kWh. This was reported in the Telegram channel of the Ministry of Energy of Dagestan. According to the department, during the raid, 95 devices for mining cryptocurrency were found that were operating with an illegal connection to the power grid.

Lawyer Ali Aliyev told the correspondent of the "Caucasian node", that the Federal Law "On Electric Power Industry" requires uninterrupted power supply to life support facilities, in particular the first reliability category. These include medical institutions, water supply and sanitation pumping stations, boiler houses and emergency services. "Doctors do not have direct legal mechanisms to reduce standards in the event of frequent power outages, since the requirements for medical institutions are established by sanitary rules and state standards. In such situations, medical organizations are required to have backup power sources to ensure the continuity of equipment operation and the preservation of drugs, including immunobiological drugs. In such cases, they should immediately contact their higher authorities and the prosecutor's office to correct the situation," the lawyer believes.

"Kavkazsky Uzel" wrote that on the evening of August 10, due to bad weather, the power supply to Makhachkala, Kaspiysk, and the villages of Untsukulsky and Buinaksky districts was disrupted. After a short time, the supply of electricity to consumers in Buinaksky district and partially in Makhachkala was restored. By August 12, power engineers announced the resumption of electricity supply.

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