A fallen power line triggered a widespread blackout across the Czech Republic on Friday afternoon, plunging large portions of Prague and surrounding regions into darkness for hours and raising fresh concerns about the vulnerability of Europe's electrical infrastructure.
The outage, which began just before noon local time, affected eight of the country's 44 high-voltage substations and left hundreds of thousands without power across Prague, Central Bohemia, Liberec, and northeastern regions. By evening, all substations had resumed operation, though the incident exposed the fragility of the nation's power grid.
The Czech Electricity Transmission System operator CEPS confirmed that a phase conductor on high-voltage line V411 had fallen, triggering a cascade failure that knocked out multiple substations12. CEPS spokesman Lukas Hrabal said on X that "the conductor simply fell" and that investigators were still determining the cause1.
The failure at line V411 also shut down Unit 6 of the Ledvice power plant, creating knock-on effects that overburdened other transmission lines and cut off large portions of the country from the grid23. Karel Hanzelka, spokesperson for Prague's power provider PRE, described the problem as electricity simply stopping "flowing into Prague from the outside"4.
The blackout immediately paralyzed public transportation across affected areas. Prague's metro system briefly shut down while trams on the right bank of the Vltava River remained idle for hours12. Transport Minister Martin Kupka wrote on X that trains had "come to a halt" on several railway lines32.
Fire and rescue services coordinated more than 200 elevator rescues across the country, according to Radio Prague International4. Mobile phone coverage and internet access were disrupted in many areas, though hospitals remained operational thanks to emergency generators32.
Prime Minister Petr Fiala announced the activation of the National Crisis Staff at 4 p.m., calling the situation "extraordinary and unpleasant"12. Interior Minister Vit Rakusan confirmed that authorities found no evidence of cyberattack or terrorist activity3.
Power was restored to Prague after 2 p.m., though Industry Minister Lukas Vlcek warned that some northern substations, particularly in the Liberec region, remained offline longer1. Vlcek cautioned that further outages could not be ruled out, though he emphasized the national grid remained "robust"1.
The incident follows a pattern of European infrastructure vulnerabilities, coming after Spain suffered its worst blackout in April and a fire disrupted London's Heathrow Airport in March34. The Czech outage revealed the speed with which technical failures can cascade through interconnected power systems, leaving millions temporarily without electricity in an increasingly grid-dependent society.
