On 4 July this year, a serious power failure occurred in the Czech Republic, affecting Prague in particular. In the capital, lights in buildings went out, metro and tram services were suspended, ATMs and traffic lights stopped working. A large part of Prague and other towns were left without electricity. Residents and tourists also had problems with card payments.
As it turned out, the power outage was caused by a failure of the Prague distribution network, linked to a serious problem in the Czech transmission system. This is not the first incident of this type in Europe – at the end of April this year, a similar situation occurred in Spain and Portugal, where a blackout affected millions of people.
Such events show how important it is to maintain the stability of power systems. An unstable system can lead to large-scale failures with immediate and severe consequences: public transport stoppages, critical infrastructure unavailability and disruptions to the daily lives of residents.
Power outages reveal the harsh truth that existing power solutions do not always meet modern safety requirements. This is a challenge facing most European countries today, including Poland.
What should be done to reduce the risk of such failures? The following measures are essential:
- Modernisation of transmission infrastructure
- Constant monitoring of threats and network status
- Regular technical inspections
- Increasing the number of electricity storage facilities
- Building redundant networks – additional transmission routes that can serve as alternatives in the event of a failure.
At BitStream, we have been developing data transmission and time synchronisation systems for years to minimise the risk of such crises. Our solutions provide real support for energy security: they are proven, resilient and adapted to the highest standards.
The failure in Prague is another alarm signal showing how important modern technologies are in the energy sector. It is worth thinking now about how to protect infrastructure from similar threats.
