Around 129,000 electricity consumers remained without power on Monday morning, three days after a powerful storm swept across Lithuania, said Grid operator Energijos Skirstymo Operatorius (ESO).
"We really did have an exceptional storm – when we compare it with previous ones, we see it was almost 35% more intense than the last major one, in 2024. And we're not basing that assessment on damage to our own grid, but on call-outs to the Fire and Rescue Department – how many calls they received from residents about fallen trees," Renaldas Radvila, head of grid operator Energijos Skirstymo Operatorius (ESO), told LRT Radio on Monday.
The scale of the disruption peaked on Saturday evening, when 268,000 consumers were left without electricity.
The worst-affected areas are the Kaunas, Utena, Panevėžys and Vilnius regions, where full restoration could take until Saturday, Radvila said. Power in Šiauliai and Klaipėda was expected to be back to normal by the end of Monday.
He said the scale of the storm, rather than any shortfall in resources, was the main obstacle to a faster recovery, with crews drawn from the railways, municipal energy services, the Lithuanian Riflemen's Union and forestry teams all mobilised to help clear fallen trees.
