Companies de-energised by blackouts

Verband der Industriellen Energie- und Kraftwirtschaft (VIK) says its member firms have experienced power failures lasting several seconds, and a rise in frequency fluctuations caused by network overloads  due to an increase in wind power generation and the shutdown of nuclear power plants.

VIK fear industrial control units will be damaged by outages, and says it is alarmed that the German Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) only detects power interruptions of at least three minutes.

Around 350 VIK companies belong to energy-intensive industries such as chemical, steel, paper, cement and glass. These companies' power consumption accounts for around 80% of industrial electricity consumption in Germany.