Thousands of Gotlanders will wake up to a home without electricity on Saturday morning.
During the night, roughly 5,000 households were without electricity, a figure that at 06.30 down to 2,400.
– Those who are without power now will probably be without power until the morning, says Mikael Hanell, disturbance manager at Geab, Gotlands Energi.
Temperatures around zero and large amounts of snow have hit the power grid.
– There is very, very heavy wet snow. Trees and branches and high-voltage lines have been burdened with the snow. Some power outages are quite short-lived, but there are also a lot of permanent faults that will be taken care of in the morning when it gets lighter, says Mikael Hanell.
Winds have prevented repairs
The strong winds during the night have further complicated the work of the repairmen who work during the night.
In the morning, the winds are expected to have increased to around 20 meters per second and the temperatures to rise to one or two plus degrees.
– It will be a little more tolerable and easier to work then, says Mikael Hanell.
– It is grateful that it is happening in the middle of the night, it makes it a little easier and even if we have received some calls, people are very understanding, he says.