Germany power lines hit by IEDs near coal plant

Improvised explosive devices damaged electricity lines on Tuesday near Germany’s Jaenschwalde coal-fired power plant, briefly interrupting service but causing no major blackout, police and grid operator 50Hertz said.

A police spokeswoman said several makeshift bombs were found around 08:00 at the Preilack substation, which distributes electricity from the nearby plant about 100 kilometres southeast of Berlin. She said at least one device detonated, others failed to go off, and no one was hurt.

50Hertz said unidentified perpetrators damaged several lines in its grid. The operator said service was briefly interrupted, but all lines were back in operation and the general power supply was not affected.

Plant operator LEAG described the incident as an attack on the Preilack substation, through which electricity from Jaenschwalde is fed into the grid. LEAG said a technical failure occurred in one unit at the power plant and that a possible connection with the incident was being investigated.

Brandenburg state premier Dietmar Woidke condemned the targeting of the power lines. He said attacks on critical infrastructure were being taken very seriously and described the frequency of such episodes as worrying.

A 50Hertz spokesman told Focus that homemade projectiles resembling fireworks typically used on New Year’s Eve in Germany were used in the attack. Local newspaper Maerkische Allgemeine Zeitung reported that they resembled large, homemade model rockets.

Police opened an investigation to determine who was behind the incident.

The incident follows a series of arson attacks around the German capital. In January, an attack on high-voltage cables caused an electricity outage that left tens of thousands of homes and thousands of businesses without power for nearly a week in southwest Berlin. The far-left Vulkangruppe, or Volcano Group, claimed responsibility for that attack and for two sabotage attacks targeting a Tesla electric car factory just outside Berlin.