The chairman of the Hellenic Transmission System Operators which regulates Greece’s flow of electricity said that Athens remains at risk of another mass power blackout during next month’s Olympic Games if power consumption stays high because of the scorching heat.
According to media reports the warning was part of a nationwide investigation by engineers and experts into who was to blame for the blackout, which has caused a major embarrassment a month before the Games begin.
The blackout left all of Athens and large parts of southern Greece without electricity for hours during a mini heat wave, halting trains, trolley buses and the underground metro system and leaving hundreds stranded in elevators.
The Greek government set up a committee to look into the issue, but as of Tuesday morning various government agencies were blaming each other for the outage.
The Athens 2004 Web site says “during the Olympic Games, an uninterrupted power supply system (generators and UPS) will provide back-up power to all critical areas of Olympic venues. This system is designed to allow the continuous supply of power for systems including results, scoring, lighting, information technology and television broadcast. As such, a similar incident would not affect the competition schedule and the broadcasting of the Games.
“Moreover, by the 8th of August, five additional power sub-stations will become operational thus greatly reinforcing the power supply of Greece”.
