A “massive disruption” of European satellite links has prevented remote monitoring and control of thousands of Enercon’s wind turbines.
Enercon told reNEWS that a total of 5800 wind turbines in central Europe, totalling 11GW, had been affected by the outage since 24 February.
The exact cause of the disruption is not yet known, however, the communication services went down at almost exactly the same time that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began, said Enercon.
The turbines themselves continued to remain in operation and are producing renewable energy, Enercon stated.
They will operate in automatic mode and are “fundamentally capable of self-contained and independent regulation”.
A report was sent to the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) immediately as a result of the impairment of the critical infrastructure.
Enercon is in close contact with the federal authorities.
Intensive efforts are being made to resolve the disruption together with the providers responsible for the satellite communication network.
In parallel Enercon said it is supporting the affected operators and owners in setting up alternative communication links in order to restore remote access as quickly as possible.
Around 30,000 satellite terminals are affected across Europe, used by companies and organisations from various sectors.
The BSI had warned of an increased threat in recent days and has activated the national IT crisis reaction centre.