Essay by Eric Worrall

“… the infrastructure is not prepared for new energy feeds …”

Power outage hits Balkan states as heat overloads system, minister says

By Reuters
June 22, 20245:43 AM GMT+10 Updated 11 hours ago

PODGORICA, June 21 (Reuters) – A major power outage hit Montenegro, Bosnia, Albania and most of Croatia’s coast on Friday, disrupting businesses, shutting down traffic lights and leaving people sweltering without air conditioning in the middle of a heatwave.

Montenegro’s energy minister said the shutdown was caused by a sudden increase in power consumption brought on by high temperatures, and by the heat itself overloading systems. Power distribution is linked across the Balkans for transfers and trading.

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Experts were still trying to identify where the malfunction originated, he added.

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Shifts in the region’s energy supplies have put strains on its transmission systems, industry officials say.

Western Balkan nations have seen a boom in solar energy investment, meant to ease a power crisis that had threatened a shift away from coal.

But the infrastructure is not prepared for new energy feeds, the president of North Macedonia’s Energy Regulatory Commission and other industry figures told Reuters in April last year.

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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/power-blackout-hits-montenegro-bosnia-albania-croatias-adriatic-coast-2024-06-21/

Clicking the “industry officials say” link led to this article;

Western Balkans see boom in solar energy but grids unprepared

By Daria Sito-sucic and Ognien Teofilovski
April 21, 20237:03 AM GMT+10Updated a year ago

SKOPJE, April 20 (Reuters) – Western Balkan nations are seeing a boom in solar energy investment, which could help ease a power crisis that had threatened a shift away from coal, but industry officials say transmission systems are not prepared for new energy feeds.

North Macedonia’s Economy Minister Kreshnik Bekteshi said investors have started to invest “quite furiously” in solar plants and that his country, which is a power importer, has become a regional hub for renewable energy sources.

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Certified producers of solar panels in addition warn that poor control of companies that install solar panels without licence amidst rising demand causes technical glitches and may inflict a huge damage to energy system.

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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/western-balkans-see-boom-solar-energy-grids-unprepared-2023-04-20/

What a mess.

Luckily for EU energy consumers, some European governments have reportedly found a face saving way to bust their own sanctions and import Russian gas – the gas is allegedly being laundered through third party nations. European importers and governments pretend they don’t know the gas they are importing was originally produced in Russia. The real losers in this alleged arrangement are European energy consumers, who are paying the cost of maintaining the gas supply fiction through their energy bills.