TETs-1 Accident Video Shows Chita Blackout Impact
A video captured the moment of an accident at Chita's TETs-1 thermal power plant, with sparks flying around, which left nearly half the city's residents without power overnight on February 4-5.
May 1, 2026 0
The moment of the accident at Chita«s TETs-1 thermal power plant, which occurred overnight on February 4-5, leaving nearly half of the city»s residents and suburbs without electricity, was captured on video provided to Chita.Ru by eyewitnesses.
An eyewitness recorded the accident at Chita«s TETs-1 thermal power plant.
Источник:
The footage shows a bright flash first, followed by several smaller flashes, scattering sparks around.
Andrei Chebykin, director of the Chita Generation branch of PJSC TGC-14 (Territorial Generating Company No. 14), told a Chita.Ru correspondent on the afternoon of February 5 that the test of the new turbogenerator at TETs-1, after which the massive power outage occurred, was not deliberately conducted at night but had continued almost the entire day of February 4. According to him, residents might have mistakenly taken the steam released from the turbines for smoke.
Andrei Portnyagin, director of electricity sales at Chita TETs-1, also explained in a report by GTRK Chita that a breakdown of insulation on a lightning arrester located at the outdoor switchgear (ORG) caused a short circuit, which led to the disconnection of two bus systems and the shutdown of the connecting autotransformer that supplies the city from the grid, resulting in the electricity supply restrictions.
Around 00:15 on the night of February 5, a significant part of Chita was left without power. The outages affected the area from the city center to the gardening communities beyond Smolenka and Ugdan. Some residents also reported a drop in heating radiator temperatures. Eyewitnesses sent videos showing thick smoke billowing from the Chita TETs-1 plant. We also captured this smoke close-up at the scene.
Zabaykalsky Krai Governor Alexander Osipov immediately held an emergency meeting overnight with the management of Chita TETs-1 and dispatched Deputy Chairman of the Government Alexei Goncharov and First Vice-Governor Alexander Kostenko to the site. By 3:00 p.m. on February 5, TETs-1 had resumed normal operations, as reported by TGC-14 on its Telegram channel.
Read more
