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Kosovo: UN mission forms energy committee to deal with lightning hit on power plant

Kosovo: UN mission forms energy committee to deal with lightning hit on power plant

Following a lightning strike on a Kosovo power plant, the head of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission (UNMIK), Michael Steiner, has announced the formation of an energy committee to deal with the sudden power shortage.

"It makes no sense to hide the fact that we will now have shortages. We have lost half of our capacity," Mr. Steiner said on Saturday in Obiliq, where he toured the damaged Kosovo B power plant, which was struck by lightning during a storm late Friday night.

"There is no doubt that this is a tragedy," he said, noting that one person had been killed. Thirty-two other people were also wounded and we also lost nearly 500 megawatts of power capacity, so it is a very serious situation."

Mr. Steiner said he was "very impressed" at how the different international and local institutions managed the incident. "Despite the seriousness of the situation, we can overcome the hardships if we follow the example of those on the ground who did a great job responding to the crisis," he said.