Power failure in the Montafon: earth closure ensures chaos and darkness!

Power failure in the Montafon: earth closure ensures chaos and darkness!

Jetzmunt, Österreich - A dramatic power failure occurred on February 9, 2025 in the Sankt Anton region to Schruns. According to Ekkehard Nachbaur, board director of the Montafonerbahn, the failure was caused by an earth connection between Sankt Anton and Bartholomäberg in the area now. As the person responsible for the network supply, Nachbaur stated that the medium-voltage conclusion with 20 kilovolt took place and that several switchgear was out of service, including the Tschagguns substation. While different locations were only affected for a short time, it took until around 11 p.m. until the entire network, apart from the damage area, worked again. A total of 20 employees were deployed to fix the situation, and luckily there were no injuries. Nachbaur also commented on the inconvenience for consumers, especially in the region's gastronomic companies.

causes and analyzes

The causes of this earth closure are currently still unclear. Nachbaur suspects that a violation of the cable insulation could be responsible for this. A detailed analysis is still pending, whereby possible construction work near or material damage must also be considered. He further explained that an almost zero failure rate had been recorded recently and emphasized that despite the incident, the installed systems worked well, which enabled a quick reaction. The Montafonerbahn will now work out necessary improvements in your systems in order to be able to react even more quickly to such incidents in the future.

Another perspective on earth gates offers the work of protective technicians that deal intensively with the topic of earth closure protection. In the power plant blocks, the state of the country is implemented in order to avoid unwanted noises or disorders caused by earth errors in the connected network. This is particularly important because earth mistakes on the network side can lead to significant problems in the power plant. According to a contribution on the protection technology, difficulties in earth error detection must be taken into account in generators in order to correctly adjust the protection value. The focus here is on suitable methods for the recording of earth defects that take into account both mechanical and electrical influences, as explained in detail in a specialist article on the stabbing protection protection. Source: Schutztechnik.com