Germany investigates two substation attacks in 24 hours as RWE loses five generating units
German police opened a terrorism investigation after improvised explosives were fired at the substation at Preilack in Brandenburg early on Tuesday. Authorities are also examining a second attack the same night at Bergheim in North Rhine-Westphalia, where perpetrators are suspected of placing conductive material on overhead lines. RWE lost five generating units at two coal-fired plants. Interior minister Herbert Reul said officials were weighing a foreign state against left-wing extremism and looking for a link between the two attacks.
Geopolitics··Morning
Improvised explosives at Preilack, conductive material at Bergheim
German authorities said on Wednesday they were investigating two attacks on electricity substations in different parts of the country. In the first, early on Tuesday, devices resembling large fireworks were fired at the substation at Preilack in eastern Brandenburg, damaging power cables and briefly disrupting supply. That substation distributes power from the nearby Jänschwalde plant. Police were called late on Tuesday to the second site, at Bergheim in North Rhine-Westphalia, where perpetrators are suspected of placing conductive material on overhead lines and shorting them. Police announced a terrorism investigation into the Preilack attack on Wednesday and are also treating it as suspected disruption of public services and destruction of essential equipment.[1], [2]
RWE units sit idle while Reul weighs a foreign hand
RWE said five generating units at two of its coal-fired plants in the region were knocked out by the disruption at the Bergheim substation, with three expected back online on Wednesday and the other two at the weekend. Neither attack left customers with a widespread outage. Herbert Reul, North Rhine-Westphalia's interior minister, said officials were examining whether the Bergheim attack was directed by a foreign state or came from left-wing extremism, and that investigators were in close contact with colleagues in Brandenburg about a possible link between the two incidents. Reul told a press conference that sabotage and hybrid attacks were happening on Germany's doorstep rather than far away.[1], [2]
A grid targeted before, hit on the day Berlin named Russia
Germany has faced repeated attacks on electricity infrastructure, with far-left militants claiming responsibility in some cases, and Berlin is also on alert for Moscow-backed sabotage plots. The two substation attacks came on the day the German government formally blamed Russia for an attempted hybrid attack involving an explosive-laden drone at Leipzig airport last month and announced diplomatic counter-measures. Officials have not linked either substation attack to that case, and the Bergheim inquiry keeps both a foreign state and left-wing extremism open.[2], [1]
