Greenland faces power outage caused by strong winds
Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, has faced a widespread power outage after strong winds triggered a transmission problem, the state utility said, Al Jazeera reports.
At about 10:30pm on Saturday (00:30 GMT, Sunday), social media users began reporting a sudden blackout that occurred at the same time, Greenlandic newspaper Sermitsiaq reported.
The utility company posted on Facebook that gusty winds at the main Buksefjord hydroelectric power plant had caused “a line error on our transmission line” and that they were working to restore power with an emergency plant.
Water supplies were also affected in some areas, Sermitsiaq reported, as well as internet connectivity.
Power had been restored to 75 percent of the city’s population of about 20,000 by 3:30am on Sunday (5:30 GMT), the utility said in an update, calling on people to be conservative in their use of electrical devices as the utility continued to reboot.
The outage came on the heels of the government releasing a brochure with details about disaster preparedness that encouraged Greenlanders to store sufficient drinking water, food, medicine, warm clothing and alternative communication devices to last at least five days.
Earlier, President Donald Trump said the United States had secured open-ended access to Greenland under a NATO framework, as allies discussed boosting Arctic security while Denmark stressed that its sovereignty remains unchanged.