Four districts of Almaty and 10 districts of Almaty regions were hit by power outages Thursday afternoon after several overhead transmission lines failed, Qazinform News Agency correspondent reports. An emergency shutdown of three 500 kV overhead transmission lines owned by KEGOC triggered automatic safety systems in the Alatau Zharyk Company grid, cutting off 300 MW of power.
Power outages affected Almaty’s Bostandyk, Nauryzbay, Auezov, and Alatau districts, as well as Almaty region’s Zhambyl, Balkhash, Yesik, Karasay, Shelek, Raiymbek, Uygur, Ili, Kegen, and Talgar districts. Specialists of Alatau Zharyk Company are carrying out the necessary measures to restore power supply to consumers, the company said.
Blackout triggers 8-point traffic jams across Almaty Severe traffic congestion has formed across Almaty amid widespread power outages, with traffic reaching 8 points. As of 4:10 p.m., data from 2GIS showed significant disruptions on several central streets across the city.
The power outage knocked out traffic lights, resulting in major traffic jams. The most congested areas included major roads such as Abai, Al-Farabi, Raiymbek and Nazarbayev Avenues, as well as Satpayev, Zhandosov and Tole Bi Streets. Almaty drivers faced compounding congestion as closures near the Central Stadium kept a portion of Abai Avenue shut down between Seifullin Avenue and Baizakov Street due to a concert by American rapper Kanye West.