A hurricane hit the North-West of Russia on the night of August 9-10, damaging three 330 kV transmission lines and sixty 6-15 kV distribution lines in the Kaliningrad Region. In the Pskov Region, there was a forced outage in 213 transmission lines of 6-10 kV; in the Leningrad Region, 150 transmission lines of 6-10 kV and 928 transformer substations; and in the Novgorod Region, 77 high-voltage lines of 6-10 kV. Thanks to the prompt action of the energy companies' staff, RAO "UES of Russia" was able to avoid power supply interruptions to all vital infrastructure and life sustaining and critical social facilities in the North-West of Russia.

By now, the teams of the power grid companies of OAO "Pskovenergo", OAO "Lenenergo", OAO "Novgorodenergo", and OAO "Yantarenergo" have been able to locate all damaged facilities and are completing the repairs. Restoration work has been completed on nearly all high-voltage power lines; most of the reports from household customers have been addressed; the majority of distribution lines have been repaired. On Saturday, August 13^th, all energy companies will have a working day to carry out repairs in the distribution grids and respond to outage reports from households.

As at 08:00 Moscow time on 12 August 2005, the crews of the energy companies in the North-West were continuing power restoration works on two 110 kV lines, eight 35 kV lines, and one hundred and seventy-nine 10/6 kV lines, which will make it possible to restore power to 380 remote and sparsely populated locations.

Over 362 repair crews and over 450 special machines are working to liquidate the consequences of the storm. All energy companies are working in close contact with the units of the Ministry of Emergencies, and the regional and local authorities.