Small cause - big effect. A bird's nest caused a power outage lasting around 3 minutes in the north-east of Giessen. The bird had built its nest in a high-voltage electricity pylon belonging to the grid operator E.ON, from which Stadtwerke Gießen AG (SWG) obtains its electricity.
As the bird used copper wires, among other things, as nesting material, an earth fault occurred, i.e. a connection between the high-voltage cable and the pylon. As a result, a protective device of a transformer in SWG's eastern substation (UW-Ost) tripped. This happened at 11:38 am. This caused a power outage in the area between Marburger Strasse and Grünberger Strasse in Giessen.
After around three minutes, Stadtwerke Gießen AG (SWG) was able to restore power to all customers.
A brief safety interruption, i.e. a power interruption lasting a fraction of a second, was felt throughout the entire SWG supply area.