Police in North Rhine-Westphalia are investigating a short circuit at a substation in Bergheim near Cologne as a deliberate act of sabotage, after officials said evidence pointed to an intentional attack on the power infrastructure.
State interior minister Herbert Reul said the case has the initial suspicion of anti-constitutional sabotage and made clear that investigators do not view the incident as accidental. “That was intent,” he said, adding that anyone who interferes with such facilities is attacking the country. Authorities are now examining two main lines of inquiry: foreign-directed sabotage and left-wing extremism. At this stage, they say neither possibility can be ruled out.
The incident took place on Tuesday evening, when police were called to the Amprion substation in Bergheim at around 8 p.m. Witnesses reported bright flashes, and the short circuit affected several lines. According to the investigating prosecutor, the damage created a situation serious enough to threaten vital public supply, because several power plant blocks were taken offline in response.
Investigators believe the short circuit was triggered deliberately, possibly by conductive material such as cables being placed on overhead lines. More precise details have not yet been released. The working assumption, however, is that the material was used to cause the fault rather than being present by accident.
A key development came when six launch devices were found in a maize field bordering the substation site. Criminal investigators believe those devices are likely linked to the attack. Lead detective Michael Esser said they appear to have been built so that pyrotechnic items could pull a wire upward over the power lines. Prosecutor Ulrich Bremer described the devices as strong evidence of a premeditated offense and said the case is being handled both as anti-constitutional sabotage and as disruption of public utilities.
The consequences were immediate. Five lignite-fired power blocks operated by RWE Power at sites in Bergheim and Grevenbroich went offline after the disturbance. At the time, those blocks were supplying roughly 3,000 megawatts of power to the grid. RWE said three of the five blocks had already returned to service by the evening, while the remaining two were expected to restart over the coming weekend. North Rhine-Westphalia energy minister Mona Neubaur said the broader electricity supply for consumers was not endangered at any point, even though the incident raised serious infrastructure security concerns.
The case is being viewed alongside another recent sabotage probe in Brandenburg, where unknown perpetrators tried to trigger short circuits on a high-voltage line near the Jänschwalde lignite power plant. Investigators in both states are comparing notes because the cases share similar indicators, including the apparent use of pyrotechnic items. The Baden-Württemberg state criminal police office said it is exchanging information with investigative units in Brandenburg and North Rhine-Westphalia to look for overlapping leads.
The practical significance of the Bergheim case goes beyond the local outage. The disruption showed how a targeted act against a single piece of infrastructure can ripple through a regional power system, forcing operators to shut down multiple blocks as a precaution. Even if the main grid held, the incident exposed the vulnerability of high-voltage installations to low-tech sabotage methods.
For investigators, the next stage will likely depend on forensic work, including DNA analysis of the devices and the surrounding field, as well as any leads from the public. Officials have not named suspects. But they have already moved the matter out of the realm of technical fault and into a criminal investigation into intentional sabotage, with national security implications now attached to a local power-grid incident.
