After a grueling three-day work, the winter command team in Braila managed to solve electrical failures in 40 localities. People have suffered from the cold and snowy roads were avoided, sometimes being forced to go around by crossing fields. But they managed to recover medium voltage networks in the county, from Friday evening until Sunday. And even if now most people are home sick, on Wednesday they will be back in the cold: a new snow storm has been announced.
“We have acted throughout this weekend, starting Friday evening and even Monday, with almost 50 people. There were over 20 fallen medium voltage lines. I used two trucks, five jeeps and other equimpent during a windstorm that blew over 70-90 km/h and a snow that measured more than a meter”, Claudiu Tudose, director of Maintenance and Energy Services Agency (AISE ) Braila, tells energynomics.ro.
People began work on Friday evening, along with the army and the Emergency Situations Inspectorate (ISU). Army opened the road with a 6 by 6 vehicle and ISU followed, with a Vola excavator.
“It was not until Friday at 19.00 that the blizzard subsided and we managed to get out of the city of Braila, and by Saturday night there were no places remaining without power via medium voltage cables. We have had only a few isolated disturbances on low tension lines- but it was just about two to three clients,” says Tudose.
One problem was the strong wind.
“Often the wind blizzard was so bad that road he had to be left for the field. People were climbing on the poles, returning to the car, drinking hot tea, get some heat and went back… It was a team work. ”
Friday was worked up to 23.00, Saturday from 7 to 23.00 and Sunday from 7 to 21.00 – with permanent danger that people could have remained blocked into the storm.
With partially frozen Danube, one of the hardest intervention was in the Great Island of Braila.
“There were floes on the Danube and it lasted at least two hours on each leg to get the ferry to the island and back,” says the head of AISE.
But, by Saturday evening all the damaged lines were operational again, throughout the county Braila, except for a village in Big Island of Braila, whose power lines were recoupled to the network on Sunday.
Monday they have solved just a few isolated damages in the local low voltage networks.
“At the moment I do not think there is any subscriber that lacks electricity,” says Tudose.
“The conditions were very harsh, it was hard. Most of us caught a cold, but we have to recover – tomorrow we must start again. A new snow storm was announced for Wednesday so we get ready with materials and equipment.”
