Snow causes problems

Christmas without electricity: many Styrians affected

An Energienetze Steiermark technician on duty on the public holiday(Bild: Energie Steiermark)

For most, it was a welcome addition to the festive mood, but the fresh snow at Christmas caused problems for many Styrians. In addition to a number of stranded drivers, several thousand households were suddenly left without electricity on Christmas Day.

Around midday, Energie Steiermark reported around 2500 households without power. The cause was mostly trees that had toppled over due to the weight of the snow and landed on power lines. As soon as the first incidents had been rectified, the wet snow caused new outages.

"The Styrian energy network operations team is working to repair the damage as quickly as possible," promised Energie Steiermark on Facebook. However, the repair work would probably continue throughout the day.

Western Styria got the most
Similar to the amount of snow, the main focus of the power outages was in western Styria from Deutschlandsberg to Stainz. Numerous outages were also reported from the border region with Slovenia.

By early evening, the number of stations with outages had fallen from double digits in some cases to just a handful. You can find an up-to-the-minute overview on the Energienetze Steiermark fault overview.