During the first snowfall of this winter, with temperatures at −5°C (23° F), large parts of Yerevan’s Erebuni administrative district have been without electricity for nearly 48 hours. Approximately 11,500 homes and businesses remain without power, affecting an estimated 30,000 residents.

The outage has occurred at the worst possible time, leaving residential areas, businesses, and critical infrastructure without electricity in freezing conditions. Residents face serious health and safety risks. A maternity hospital in the affected area is currently operating on diesel generators.

According to Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA), the outage was caused by a fire at the Vardashen substation, which destroyed 23 feeder units and their control and protection systems, cutting power to large parts of Erebuni and other areas of Yerevan.

ENA says repair crews have been working continuously to replace damaged equipment. The company initially announced that electricity would be fully restored by 22:00. That deadline passed without results. ENA has since extended the timeline by an additional two to three hours, without explaining why the original estimate failed.

The scale and timing of the outage raise serious questions of responsibility. Over the past six months, ENA underwent a forced transfer of control following the imprisonment of Samvel Karapetyan, owner of the Tashir Group, by order of Nikol Pashinyan, reportedly linked to Karapetyan’s defense of the Catholicos of All Armenians. Shortly afterward, ENA was taken over by the state and its license was revoked.

Since then, ENA has operated under direct government control. In this context, a major infrastructure failure during the first snowfall of winter points to systemic mismanagement rather than an isolated technical accident. Preventive maintenance, contingency planning, and emergency response appear to have failed simultaneously.

While law enforcement agencies have reportedly been notified and officials state that the cause will be determined after a preliminary investigation, no authority has addressed accountability or outlined concrete measures to prevent a recurrence.