© Reuters. Members of the media stand outside the building of Tesla’s production plant in Gruenheide outside Berlin, Germany, March 5, 2024, after the site lost power following a suspected arson attack on a nearby pylon. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner/file photo
FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Tesla’s German gigafactory near Berlin could be supplied with electricity again from Monday, the power firm in charge of fixing the outage, which began on March 5, said.
E.dis, a division of German energy network firm E.ON, said speedy weekend assembly work meant there was a chance power could restart in the evening of March 11.
The outage at the site in Gruenheide was a result of an arson attack on a nearby power pylon for which activists from the far-left Vulkangruppe claimed responsibility.
Tesla (NASDAQ:) said last week it expected the outage to last until March 15, while the works council chief of the electric vehicle (EV) maker’s Brandenburg plant said on March 8 it would restart this week, without giving a specific date.
E.dis said that resumption of power supply depended on a high-voltage test as well as the official approval by engineers, both of which are expected to take place during Monday.
Joerg Steinbach, the economy minister in Brandenburg, said that E.dis employees had been working in a three-shift mode to ensure electricity can flow as soon as possible.
“It now looks like it won’t take until the end of the week, but that the power supply can be restored sooner,” he told public broadcaster RBB.
The outage has meant Tesla cannot produce around 1,000 cars a day, with the factory’s head saying that the disruption would cost in the region of 100 millions euros.
Tesla was not immediately available for comment.