Blackouts in the Cagliari area: high electricity demand due to the extreme heat, the system cannot cope.

A widespread blackout in the Cagliari area at the end of a day marked by high temperatures.

The grid, in all likelihood, cannot handle the exponentially increased demand for electricity due to the air conditioners turned on to try to cope with the tropical conditions that persist even after sunset.

Provincia di Cagliari

Sinnai e Settimo San Pietro, una serata di blackout: danni e disagi

Antonio Serreli

The epicenter of the outage is in the municipalities of Sinnai and Settimo San Pietro, where power has been out for hours, and the mayors have contacted Enel: in some areas, generators are being used to deal with the emergency. But the outage began to manifest itself in the afternoon, and freezers—both domestic and commercial—are now full of food that will likely be unusable. Street lighting has also been turned off.

As the hours passed—and electricity demand increased— the outages spread to numerous centers. User reports are consistent with the map of power outages made available by E-Distribuzione.

Problems are reported in Quartu, Assemini, Quartucciu, Sestu, Capoterra, and Pula. In some cases, the solution is expected in the middle of the night. In some cases, a single outage affects nearly 200 customers. The disruption is severe.

Enrico Fresu