A fire at a substation left tens of thousands of Makhachkala residents without power.
More than 90,000 customers in Makhachkala were left without power due to a fire at the Novaya substation. Dagenergo employees reported on the work to fix the problem and plans to soon restore power to residents' homes.
As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," residents of Dagestan regularly complain of extended power outages. A new round of power supply problems in Makhachkala in early April occurred amid massive flooding.
Unresolved problems in the housing and utilities sector are a factor in the growth of protest activity in Dagestan, Sergei Bachurin, head of the North Caucasus Federal District Ministry of Internal Affairs, stated on January 19. Makhachkala residents agreed with his opinion. "Problems with water, electricity, heating, and tariffs are not just household inconveniences, but a trigger for increased social tension, which leads to increased protest activity," noted Rasul Asad, the author of the Telegram channel "Ask Rasul."
A fire at the Novaya substation in Makhachkala was reported this evening. According to the republic's Ministry of Emergency Situations, there was a "short circuit and fire."
"The city of Makhachkala is partially without power," the ministry said in a statement. The outage affected 25,974 households with 90,580 people. The Telegram channel Mash Gor, citing experts, predicted that "power will not be restored before morning."
The Dagestan Prosecutor's Office has launched an investigation into the fire at the substation. The agency announced that it plans to assess "compliance with electricity supply and fire safety legislation."
The company "Dagenergo," in turn, reported that specialists are working to restore power in Makhachkala. "Consumers are being switched to backup power systems," the company's Telegram channel reported.
Dagestan's Minister of Energy and Tariffs, Marat Shikhaliev, personally visited the substation. At 10:15 PM Moscow time today, he wrote on his Telegram channel that "all consumers will be powered up soon."