Windstorms knock out power to over 200,000 customers across northern and eastern Poland

Grid failures across northern and eastern Poland

Severe weather conditions disrupted the electrical grid across wide areas of northern and eastern Poland on Saturday, 22 August. By 14:00, regional distribution operator PGE Dystrybucja reported that approximately 145,000 customers lacked power in its north-eastern coverage zone. Simultaneously, distributor Energa Operator reported widespread network disruptions across its Toruń and Płock operating branches, expanding to include the Olsztyn area by 13:00. Across Energa Operator's service territory, which covers roughly a quarter of the country with 200,000 kilometres of lines and 3.4 million clients, over 56,000 customers remained without power. Combined utility figures placed total outage numbers across the affected distribution areas at over 200,000 customers during the afternoon.

Regional breakdown in Podlaskie and Warmia-Mazury

The disruption concentrated heavily in the Podlaskie Voivodeship and neighbouring sections of the Warmia-Mazury Voivodeship. Within the Białystok operational area, outages affected approximately 71,000 customers, primarily located across the rural and suburban territory of Białystok County. Further north-west, in the Ełk Energy Region administered by PGE Dystrybucja's Białystok division, power cuts left around 36,000 customers without electricity. Utility technicians deployed immediately to secure damaged lines, but ongoing wind gusts continued to cause secondary line faults faster than repair crews could resolve them. Customers seeking assistance faced long waiting times, with high call volumes saturating local emergency lines at Pogotowie Energetyczne.

PGE Dystrybucja crews have been working in the field since the onset of the failure, locating damage, securing incident sites, and gradually restoring power to customers. We are doing everything to make power interruptions last as short as possible and to restore supply to our customers as quickly as possible.

Emergency services mobilize nationwide

The storm front prompted widespread deployment of emergency personnel to clear roadways and secure damaged infrastructure. State Fire Service spokesperson Brigadier Karol Kroć confirmed the scale of the national response during a briefing on Saturday afternoon.

We have recorded over 6,500 interventions.

In Podlaskie Voivodeship, fire units logged nearly 700 separate call-outs by 15:00, primarily dealing with windthrows, uprooted trees, and blocked transit corridors. Strong wind gusts also damaged approximately 20 residential and commercial buildings across Podlaskie. Regional authorities reported that none of the building damage incidents resulted in human injuries or casualties.

Crisis coordination and repair schedules

Regional administrators convened an emergency coordination session at the Podlaskie Voivodeship Office in Białystok to manage the response. The meeting included Deputy Voivode Paweł Krutul, senior commanders from the State Fire Service, and operational directors from PGE Dystrybucja. PGE officials advised municipal leaders that line clearing and transformer repairs would extend late into the evening. Technical teams prioritized removing electrical hazards and restoring high-voltage transmission lines to critical community facilities before reconnecting individual local distribution branches. Energy emergency services warned that full power restoration to all affected households in the Białystok area could take until midnight.