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Berlin Power Outage Triggers Delay on Critical Infrastructure Law as Counties Press for Fixes

County leaders warn the 500,000-person coverage threshold leaves rural providers unprotected.

Overview

  • Germany’s governing coalition postponed Bundestag deliberations on the Kritis-Dachgesetz, citing the need for further discussion following the Berlin sabotage.
  • After a suspected arson attack on a cable bridge in Steglitz-Zehlendorf, about 45,000 households and 2,200 businesses lost power in what the operator called the capital’s longest postwar outage.
  • the German County Association urges lawmakers to lower the law’s coverage threshold so smaller, regional utilities must adopt protective measures.
  • AG-Kritis argues the draft would not prevent incidents like Berlin’s and warns concrete resilience rules deferred to ordinances may not be in place until around 2030.
  • Supporters, including PKGr chair Marc Henrichmann, say the bill would at least compel operators to systematically address vulnerabilities, while the Interior Ministry declined to comment on criticisms.