Rosseti named the cause of the flashes in the sky over Chelyabinsk
“Bright flashes are associated with short circuits at power facilities. The 110 kV lines are now in operation. There are no consequences for system reliability of power supply. As a result of the technological violation, only a few lines of the distribution network remain de-energized, which provide power supply to the villages of Mokhovichki, Krasnoye Pole, and Prudny,” the company noted.
They added that they are restoring power supplies to these settlements (located in the Sosnovsky district of the region).
A video of an “unusual glow” that occurred in a northwest direction from Chelyabinsk was published by the head of the Public Chamber of the region, Nikolai Daineko. Another resident of Chelyabinsk told 74.ru that he saw several strong flashes of turquoise color around 18:15 local time (16:15 Moscow time) from the villages of Shagol and Krasnoye Pole.
Since the beginning of January, incidents with temporary power outages for some consumers have already occurred in Russian regions. On New Year's holidays, a fire at a substation caused residential buildings in the north-east of Moscow to be temporarily without power; on January 9, a broken wire disrupted the electricity supply in seven districts of the Kherson region; on December 10, due to an emergency shutdown of a substation, half of Omsk was left without power.