Part of Prague found itself plunged into darkness just before noon today, as a malfunction at one of PRE’s distribution substations left thousands without power. The outage, which lasted approximately 15 minutes, affected several central districts including Nové Město, Nusle, Vinohrady, and Žižkov before engineers successfully rerouted the power supply.

PRE Distribuce initially warned residents on their website that electricity restoration was expected by 1:30 PM, but the utility company managed to resolve the issue much more quickly. Shortly after noon, power began flowing again to the affected neighborhoods.

The sudden blackout had immediate ripple effects across the city’s infrastructure. Prague’s fire brigade responded to several callouts, though spokesperson Miroslav Řezáč cautioned that not all incidents could be definitively linked to the power failure. “We can’t say with certainty that they’re related to the power outages. We have three events in central Prague, but we’re also responding to places where electricity is already working,” he explained. Most of the emergency calls involved people trapped in elevators.

Public transportation bore the brunt of the disruption. At Náměstí Míru metro station, escalators ground to a halt due to the power loss, forcing authorities to close the station for approximately twenty minutes. The metro system itself experienced a brief five-minute outage, while trams faced repeated short-term disruptions, particularly in the city center.

The impact on daily life was palpable throughout the affected districts. A Novinky reporter in Vinohrady observed non-functioning traffic lights, stationary trams, and darkened shop interiors—a snapshot of a modern city suddenly stripped of its electrical lifeline. While the outage proved relatively brief, it served as a stark reminder of how deeply dependent urban infrastructure has become on reliable power supply.