Greenland hit by power outage, strong winds in wake of US tensions easing

News|Energy

Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, has faced a widespread power outage after strong winds triggered a transmission problem, the state utility said, as the Arctic island contends with the fallout from the crisis fuelled by United States President Donald Trump’s territorial designs.

At about 10:30pm on Saturday (00:30 GMT, Sunday), social media users began reporting a sudden blackout that occurred at the same time, Greenlandic newspaper Sermitsiaq reported.

list of 4 items

list 1 of 4Did the US give Greenland back to Denmark? Trump omits history at Davos
list 2 of 4Trump’s fragile Greenland ‘framework’ with NATO
list 3 of 4A look at the rare earth minerals Trump wants to mine in Greenland
list 4 of 4Trump’s imperial tantrum

end of list

The utility company posted on Facebook that gusty winds at the main Buksefjord hydroelectric power plant had caused “a line error on our transmission line” and that they were working to restore power with an emergency plant.

Water supplies were also affected in some areas, Sermitsiaq reported, as well as internet connectivity.

Power had been restored to 75 percent of the city’s population of about 20,000 by 3:30am on Sunday (5:30 GMT), the utility said in an update, calling on people to be conservative in their use of electrical devices as the utility continued to reboot.

The outage came on the heels of the government releasing a brochure with details about disaster preparedness that encouraged Greenlanders to store sufficient drinking water, food, medicine, warm clothing and alternative communication devices to last at least five days.

The government emphasised that the guidance was not an expression that a crisis was imminent. But Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory, has been thrust into the geopolitical spotlight for weeks amid United States President Donald Trump’s escalating threats to seize the island.

Trump appeared to partly back off at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, claiming he had ruled out taking Greenland by force. He and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte had agreed on a “long-term” framework for a future deal involving Greenland and the Arctic region, the president said.

Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said much of the supposed deal was murky, including whether Trump would seek control of territory near US military bases, as some reports suggested.

“I don’t know what there is in the agreement, or the deal, about my country,” Nielsen said.

“But sovereignty is a red line,” he added.