Porto, Portugal, Oct. 9, 2024 (Lusa) - Around 48,000 people, mainly in Portugal's northern districts of Viana do Castelo and Braga, were without electricity at around 4.30pm on Wednesday due to the bad weather affecting the country, E-Redes said.

In a statement, the EDP group company said that by 4.30 p.m. 90% of the incidents had been resolved, after the number of customers without power at 11.45 a.m. totalled 175,000.

At 9am, around 400,000 customers were without power, the company said.

The main cause of the faults has been falling trees and branches that have damaged poles and conductors, it explained.

At the moment, 56 generators have been installed on the ground to minimise the impact of these faults on the electricity grid, E-Redes revealed.

The EDP group company, which is responsible for operating the electricity distribution network in mainland Portugal at low, medium and high voltage, warned that due to the ‘severity of the damage found’ in some cases it will take longer to restore the network.

"In view of the efforts of the teams on the ground, who have been working since 5am, we are mobilising operatives from other geographical areas to allow operational rotation and maintain this recovery effort in restoring power to all affected customers," it stressed.

Between 6pm on Tuesday and 9am today, the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC) recorded 1,329 incidents related to the strong wind, the vast majority of which were tree falls.

"The northern region was the worst affected by the bad weather, with 988 incidents, the largest number of which, 415, were recorded in the Porto Metropolitan Area, with many trees falling due to the action of the wind," said the ANEPC's operations officer, José Miranda.

SVF/AYLS // AYLS

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