Fault at Linden substation causes fire in switchgear bay
Oct 2026Published 18 Oct 2026Responsible editor: Chief Editor
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What happened
On 18 October 2026, a further power failure occurred at the Linden substation in the Dithmarschen district of western Schleswig-Holstein, operated by SH Netz (Schleswig-Holstein Netz). The failure followed an earlier power cut in the west of the state and led to a fire at a switchgear bay in the substation around midday. Rescue services were on site immediately. At the time of the company's fourth update, several thousand households in the region were affected by the renewed outage. SH Netz's fault crew was on site and, working with the company's network control centre, was focusing on restoring supply as quickly as possible.
Contributing factors
Not reported. The company describes the failure as a consequential fault (Folgefehler) following the earlier outage in western Schleswig-Holstein, but the release does not state the cause of the original outage or of the fire.
Lessons learned
- Check switchgear and protection settings after a wider network disturbance, so that a fault that follows an outage does not escalate into a fire.
- Coordinate fault crews and network control centres during restoration, so that supply can be brought back without a further failure.
- Keep customers and the public informed with regular updates while repeated outages are being investigated.
More lessons on electrical protection and isolation, outages, backup supply and restoration, from every incident on the register.
Source
Published 2026-10-18. Written from public reporting. Descriptive, not investigative. See the data accuracy disclaimer.
