Hundreds of trains stood idle and public transport in several cities paused after the V411 transmission line and Unit 6 of the Ledvice power plant went offline just before noon local time (1000 GMT).
The failure overloaded another line and substation, isolating part of the country from the grid, ČEPS added.
Power was restored to all eight affected substations before 1300 GMT, but distribution companies were still reconnecting customers at 1350 GMT.
Prague’s network was “nearly fully” running three hours after the blackout, though many trains elsewhere remained stopped; local distributor PRE expected full restoration by 1400 GMT.
Interior Minister Vit Rakusan told Czech Television there was no sign of a cyber or terrorist attack.
Firefighters handled 215 elevator rescues nationwide, all completed safely, spokesperson Lucie Pipis said. Ten prisons lost electricity without compromising security, and three large Prague hospitals switched temporarily to backup power.
Refiner-petrochemical group Orlen Unipetrol shut its Litvinov complex in emergency mode. Grid operator E.ON said its southern Czech supply area was unaffected.
Analysts have warned of stress on Europe’s ageing grids after Spain suffered its worst blackout in April and a fire knocked out power at London’s Heathrow airport in March.
(jh)
Source: IAR, TVN24, Reuters