Power outage in Rijnmond area: Thousands of homes, chemical companies affected

A power outage in Hoek van Holland, Brielle, Oostvoorne, and Europoort is affecting thousands of households and several large chemical companies. The cause of the outage and how long it will last is still unknown.

The power went out at around 10:05 a.m. this morning, Rijnmod reports. It is unclear how large an area and how many people are affected. The Stena Line and P&O Ferries are also without power.

According to Rijnmond, the problem seems to be in the distribution station in Europoort. Grid manager Stedin has engineers working to identify and solve the problem.

The impacted chemical companies are forced to flare - burning their flammable gasses in a controlled manner. This is often accompanied by a large flame and thick clouds of smoke.

The factories need to flare because they can’t function properly without electricity. If flammable gasses are left to build up, an explosion could occur in the worst-case scenario. Flaring prevents that.