Some 25,000 Amsterdam, Diemen addresses hit by power outage

A fault in a switching station left about 25 thousand homes and businesses in Amsterdam and Diemen without power on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. About 14 thousand addresses still don't have power. Grid operator hopes to have the electricity restored by 8:00 a.m., ANP reports. The power went out around 8:15 p.m. on Tuesday night. At around 3:00 a.m. some 11 thousand addresses had power again. The rest are still affected. Liander technicians had to wait some time before being able to enter the switching station, a Liander spokesperson said to the news wire. Smoke came out of the station at one point and the firefighters had to be called in. The technicians were only able to enter around 2:00 a.m. They now know what went wrong and hope to be able to fix it quickly. The power outage caused quite a bit of inconvenience in the city. Some trams aren't running and dozens of people had to be rescued from lifts by the fire department. The police also deployed extra officers to patrol in the affected areas, to prevent burglaries at addresses where alarms aren't working. According to ANP, people affected by a power outage for more than 4 hours can qualify for compensation of at least 35 euros. Those entitled to compensation do not need to submit a claim. The amount will automatically be deducted from their energy bills.