#power-outages

#power-outages

Ukraine is currently undergoing a particularly cold spell with temperatures in the capital Kyiv reaching lows of minus 17 degrees Celsius. Because of Russia's ongoing destruction of the country's energy infrastructure, the situation is critical. Authorities have imposed strict timetables for when electricity can be used. About 400 high-rise buildings in the capital have no heating at all. Some do not have access to water.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that a state of emergency was being declared for Ukraine's energy sector, after repeated Russian attacks destroyed electricity and heat infrastructure. Zelenskyy said he asked the government to review curfew restrictions during this extremely cold weather. Kateryna Pop, spokeswoman for the Kyiv City Military Administration, said 471 buildings in Ukraine's capital remained without heat on Wednesday as temperatures again dropped to minus 19 degrees Celsius (-2.2 Fahrenheit) overnight, according to Ukraine's Ukrinform news agency.

The change, which follows a 5% rate cut that went into effect Jan. 1, comes on the heels of rising tensions between the utility, its customers and Bay Area leaders. Multiple blackouts just before Christmas and New Year's Day left tens of thousands of San Francisco residents without electricity for several days, drawing widespread attention and even prompting some government officials to call for a shift away from PG&E infrastructure.

"Which would then take the power from that grid, put it into batteries and then in outages that occur from storm systems like this actually go ahead and kick on and keep people with power for the amount of time that we think's going to be necessary to see power restored in really terrible storm systems," Supervisor Mueller said.

The weather administration said damage from the quake should be limited because it was deep and hit offshore. A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Taiwan's northeastern coastal city, the island's weather administration said, with no immediate reports of major damage. The quake with a depth of 73km (45 miles) was felt across Taiwan and shook buildings in the capital Taipei, the administration said on Saturday, assigning it an intensity-four category, meaning there could be minor damage.

"It literally felt like a bomb went off," he said.

The large-scale Russian attacks come two days after US-led peace talks end in Miami.

From The Weather Channel: More than 300,000 homes and businesses remained without power Thursday morning after damaging winds slammed multiple states, including South Dakota, Colorado, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Washington state. Nearly two dozen winds gusts of more than 100 mph were recorded Wednesday. The powerful winds brought down trees and powerlines killing one man and critically injuring two children.

For hours, millions of residents remained in the dark as the government worked to restore power to an area that spans from the westernmost province of Pinar del Rio to Mayabeque, just east of Havana. Throughout the morning, officials sought to reassure the public that electricity would soon be restored. Following the power outage in western Cuba, the workers at [the Ministry of Energy and Mines] immediately began restoration efforts, which are already under way,