Hundreds Left Chilly on Christmas Eve as Oslo‘s Main Heat Network Suffers Outage
In an inconvenient Christmas Eve twist, Oslo residents found themselves chilled just as they were preparing for their festive feasts. The city’s main heat network, operated by Hafslund Celsio, experienced an outage that left around 522 addresses cold, though the exact number of households affected remains unknown.
This incident impacted Norway’s largest heat network, which supplies heat and cooling to approximately 1,000 apartment blocks and over 3,000 single-family or row houses in the Oslo region. Residents near Blindern and Ullevål areas were particularly affected, with some experiencing lower-than-usual temperatures.
The issue was first reported at 2:30 PM and resolved by 7:00 PM, with many residence associations notifying their tenants about the disruption. One message read, "Hafslund is experiencing issues with the heat network. This means there’s little hot water and heating at the moment. We can only advise patience and hope that everyone has done their Christmas laundry, and that it’s sorted before the rib beef needs to be cleaned off the pan and dinner is served."
Hafslund Celsio’s Communications Chief, Truls Jemtland, apologized for the inconvenience on such an important day, stating, "We regret the inconvenience on Christmas Eve."
The heat network produces and distributes warmth using eleven sites across the city, using a mix of resources such as waste biomass, bioliquid fuel, LNG gas, and electricity. Despite the setback, normal service was resumed before nightfall, allowing Oslo residents to celebrate Christmas in comfort.
