Europe faces energetic collapse

Europe is running low on electricity and Russia won’t be able to help. Scientists encourage the EU residents to burn candles and to stop cooking on electrical ovens.

“Just some relatively warm days in winter saved Western Europe from energetic collapse whereas the next winter might be a serious challenge for the entire Europe”, - warns a researcher from Switzerland Michael Dittmar. Using the information from the Union of the Coordination of Transmission of Electricity, the scientists concluded that the top pressure on electricity in winter days is much more than the maximum limit.

Thus, the next serious test of the stability of the power lines is postponed until winter. His research states that for the last 15 years the EU hasn’t built a single big power plant. Europeans won’t be able to build any of them until winter, and the shortage of electricity is evident today. Dittmar encourages the European authorities to decrease the level of electricity usage.

Particularly, he wants to agitate the citizens to be thriftier and explain that each of them holds personal responsibility for saving the energy during peak demands in order to prevent energetic crash. He also encourages to stop cooking on electrical ovens and using elevator. The scientist also advises to use candles during romantic evenings, because it is aesthetic and thrifty. Otherwise the risk of electricity blackouts will rapidly increase.

The situation described by Michelle Dittmar is similar in Russia, where after the breakdown of the energetic system many regions faced severe energy deficit. Germany faced the same problems. Now it experiences the most serious shortage of electricity, partly because it closed many of the power stations as a support to the Green movement. German authorities are thinking about using alternative sources of energy, but this won’t turn economically profitable – the alternative sources won’t cover even 10 percent of the society’s demands in electricity.

Luckily, things now are not that bad. Europe still carefully traces its energetic security. In addition, such severe winters are not really common in Europe. However, if the serious frost breaks this year in Europe, there might be some blackouts in the energetic system.

Russia offers Europe a way out of the crisis. European energetic system can join Russian Joint-Stock Company "Unified Energy System of Russia". Some power plants that are situated in the European part of Russia can produce much more energy than they do now. The plan about the cooperation between Europe and Russia is still unclear. Meanwhile the Baltic countries, the Ukraine and Belarus constantly offer their help. Probably, with the help of its western neighbors Europe will be able to keep up until the next year.

Translated by Lena Ksandinova