Germany treats two grid attacks in 24 hours as sabotage, not accidents

North Rhine-Westphalia's interior minister, Herbert Reul, said on Wednesday that the short circuit at Amprion's Bergheim substation was a crime. "That was not a broken switch. That was intent. That was a criminal offence. Whoever goes after that attacks our country." Cologne prosecutors have opened a case for Verfassungsschutz-relevant sabotage, the German charge used when an attack on infrastructure is treated as an assault on the constitutional order.

Police were called to the site around 8 p.m. on Tuesday after witnesses reported bright flashes. Investigators later found six launch devices in a maize field. Lead detective Michael Esser said the rigs were built to fire a wire, with a pyrotechnic charge, over the overhead lines. Conductive material on a live conductor produces a short. Several circuits went down. RWE said five lignite units in the Rhine district, with 4,200 megawatts of combined capacity, tripped off the grid. One 600 MW block was later restored. Households did not lose power. Amprion, the transmission owner, said supply and system stability held.

The Brandenburg strike came first

Early Tuesday, unknown attackers fired improvised rockets at power cables near the Janschwalde lignite plant and the Preilack substation in Brandenburg. The devices damaged lines. They did not produce a wide blackout. Bild reported more than 20 homemade rockets, some with timers. Police opened a terrorism investigation on that file. The method differs from earlier cable cuts that German services have tied to the left-wing militant scene, Brandenburg officials said.

Reul said NRW is testing two tracks: sabotage directed by a foreign state, and left-wing extremism. He ruled neither out. The timing matters. On Tuesday Berlin blamed Russia for an explosive drone that struck an Antonov wing at Leipzig/Halle Airport on 4 August and failed to detonate. Germany summoned the Russian ambassador and said it would close the consulate in Bonn. Moscow denies the Leipzig charge.

Why five power stations can trip when the lights stay on

A substation is a junction, not a power plant. When several outgoing lines fault at once, generators that were pushing power into those lines disconnect to protect themselves. RWE's Rhine units sit close to Bergheim. They dropped 4,200 MW in minutes. The rest of the German grid absorbed the loss. That is why officials can say both things: the attack hit generation, and customers kept their supply.

Municipal utility group VKU said the same day that the threat to critical infrastructure is rising and asked the security services for a harder response. Energy firms also complain that transparency rules force them to publish grid plans that anyone can read. The Bergheim devices were simple. Wire, a pipe, a charge, a field with a view of the line. The sophistication sat in the choice of target, not in the hardware.

What is not yet known

No group has claimed either attack. No suspect is in custody on the Bergheim file. The six launchers are physical evidence. They do not, by themselves, name a sponsor. The next facts that will matter are forensic matches between the Brandenburg rockets and the Bergheim rigs, and whether German services treat the two nights as one campaign or two copycats. Until that call is made, the operational record is two attacks on the high-voltage system in 24 hours, 4,200 MW forced offline, and a prosecutor using the sabotage statute rather than ordinary vandalism.