Power failure in Turkey

[Syt]

Where in Turkey? EVERYWHERE (almost).

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32130567

Turkey power cut hits big cities

A massive power cut has hit dozens of provinces across Turkey, with officials saying a break in connections with mainland Europe could be to blame.

The cuts affected power stations and public transport, including Istanbul's tram and metro systems.

A crisis centre has been set up at the energy ministry.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said all possible causes are being examined, including terrorism. The cut hit at 10:36 (07:36 GMT) on Tuesday morning.

By early afternoon the Turkish Electricity Transmission company said only 15% of Istanbul and Ankara had power. Istanbul's transport company said all of its lines were back up and running.

Turkish TV reported that power had been re-established in the cities of Edirne, Tekirdag, Erzurum and Trabzon.

"Our main target right now is to restore the network. This is not an incident that we see frequently," Energy Minister Taner Yildiz told Turkish media.

Turkey suffers from sporadic electricity cuts but locals say they cannot remember such a nationwide cut for a generation, reports the BBC's Mark Lowen in Istanbul.

One of the few cities unaffected by the power cut was Van in the east of the country, where electricity is supplied from Iran.

[Eddie Teach]

Sounds like a job for Valmy.

[Zanza]

Holland had one a couple of days ago:

Power returns to Amsterdam after outage hits a million homes
AMSTERDAM | BY THOMAS ESCRITT
(Reuters) - The Amsterdam region suffered a power blackout of more than five hours on Friday that hit a million households, forced flights to divert from Schiphol airport and disrupted national public transport networks.

After more than two hours without power, lights switched back on in the Amsterdam financial district and gradually returned to cities across the province of Noord Holland, home to a sixth of the country's 17 million people.

"The power outage brought trams and metros to a standstill, traffic lights went out and people were trapped in lifts," the city of Amsterdam said in a statement. There were no reports of injuries or security problems.

Power outages on this scale are rare in Europe. In December 2013, storm damage deprived 240,000 homes of electricity in France, mostly in coastal Brittany and Normandy.

The most recent region-wide outage was on November 4, 2006, when 15 million people in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Spain and Portugal lost power, according to the International Energy Agency.

Travellers faced huge delays on trains on Friday as computer systems were put back online and stations filled with passengers.

Major delays were also reported at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, where all flights were briefly suspended and inbound planes diverted to regional airports. Amsterdam-bound airliners were delayed on the tarmac on airports throughout Europe.


Two hours after the start of blackout, grid operator TenneT said on its twitter feed that it had restored power to its high voltage network in the densely populated province, though restoring local grids one by one took several hours more.

[Syt]

Also, there appears to be a hostage situation in Istanbul where a left wing group have taken a prosecutor hostage.

[Liep]

Also, there appears to be a hostage situation in Istanbul where a left wing group have taken a prosecutor hostage.

So is that the actual reason for the power failure?

[Valmy]

Sounds like a job for Valmy.

Turkish Valmy is launching a full investigation I am sure. Seriously an event like this in Texas would mean months of work as the recriminations and finger pointing would overwhelm the political system

[Valmy]

Also, there appears to be a hostage situation in Istanbul where a left wing group have taken a prosecutor hostage.

That would make for a more entertaining outage report than the kind I get to write.

[Liep]

Also, there appears to be a hostage situation in Istanbul where a left wing group have taken a prosecutor hostage.

All dead. Power is back on.

[Ideologue]

After more than two hours without power, lights switched back on in the Amsterdam financial district and gradually returned to cities across the province of Noord Holland

Sounds about right.

[Solmyr]

I thought the thread title referred to Erdogan failing.

[Tamas]

I thought the thread title referred to Erdogan failing.

He probably switched on one too many lights in his palace.