Power outage Sittard-Geleen: are you ready for 72 hours?

Wednesday night, 21 October, 02:30. In one go, the power goes out for around 10,000 households in Sittard, Geleen, Born, Stein and the surrounding villages. Twelve towns and villages are plunged into darkness, from Munstergeleen to Urmond and even Klimmen and Margraten (Stroomstoringkaart).

Power outage Sittard-Geleen, 21 October 2026: 10,000 households, 12 towns, 11 minutes

After 11 minutes it is over. Most people slept right through it. But anyone who was awake noticed it straight away: no lights, no wi-fi, the fridge silent.

Eleven minutes is short. The question is: what if it isn't eleven minutes, but eleven hours? Or three days?

Not an isolated incident: this was 2026

The outage in Sittard-Geleen is part of a pattern. This year, tens of thousands of people in the Netherlands have been left without power, sometimes for hours.

Major power outages in the Netherlands in 2026 and the number of households affected

Date	Where	What happened
21 October	Sittard-Geleen, Stein, Born and surroundings	Around 10,000 households without power for 11 minutes, in the middle of the night
20 October	Almere, Lelystad, Zeewolde	Thousands of households without power for well over an hour and a half
8 September	Zeewolde, Almere, Lelystad	More than 5,000 households without power for hours
5 July	Tilburg, Gilze, Goirle	Enexis deliberately cuts power to 18,000 customers to prevent grid overload
14 June	Rotterdam-Zuid	Fire at a high-voltage substation: almost 20,000 households without power until 4 pm
23 February	Workum, Hindeloopen, Koudum	Damaged cable: thousands of people in Friesland without power for hours

Traffic lights out during a major power outage

Tilburg was the most striking moment of the year. Never before had Enexis disconnected households for this reason. Traffic lights went out and in Gilze people got stuck in a lift (Bright). A measurement error later turned out to be the cause, but a day later Enexis had to disconnect almost a hundred households near Oss because of genuine overload (Osborne Clarke).

Why the power goes out more often

In many places, the Dutch electricity grid is full. Heat pumps, EV chargers, induction hobs and businesses moving away from gas all demand power at the same time, especially between 4 pm and 9 pm (Rijksoverheid).

Connection freeze: since 1 July 2026, homes and small businesses in the Utrecht region can no longer get a new or heavier grid connection.
It is spreading: after Flevoland, Gelderland and Utrecht, Brabant is now at risk of being locked down too.
Overload is already real: Enexis counts 22 critical sections of the grid; seven of them already ran into trouble last winter, around Eindhoven, Helmond, Den Bosch, Tilburg and Oss.
Shortages sooner than expected: TenneT warns that the Netherlands could breach the legal standard for security of supply as early as 2028, particularly on winter mornings and evenings.

The State Secretary also does not rule out grid operators having to take emergency measures in exceptional situations. In other words: load shedding is no longer an unthinkable scenario.

Overloaded electricity grid in the Netherlands: transformer substation next to a residential area

What the government advises: look after yourself for 72 hours

The government asks every household to be able to cope on its own for at least the first 72 hours. In the first days of an emergency, the emergency services are needed where things are worst, and they cannot be everywhere at once (Rijksoverheid).

That is why the Denk vooruit (Think Ahead) campaign is running. A new round started on 12 October, asking questions such as: who needs help if the lift stops working?

Even so, more than half of Dutch households still do not have an emergency kit at home. After the campaign that figure stands at 44 percent, 9 percentage points more than in 2025 (NOS).

Couple putting together an emergency kit for 72 hours without power

What stops working when the power goes out

Without electricity, a lot more than just the lights stops working. During the outage in Rotterdam-Zuid, even Stedin's outage website went down temporarily, and anyone living above the third floor could lose water pressure.

Light: in the evening and at night you are instantly in the dark.
Information: wi-fi and TV go down, and in a major outage so does the mobile network. You don't know what is going on or how long it will last.
Your phone: without a wall socket, the battery is flat within a day.
Heating: a central heating boiler and a heat pump need electricity too.
Fridge and freezer: a closed freezer stays cold for about four hours.
Card payments: payment terminals don't work. Cash does.

Checklist: are you ready for 72 hours?

Emergency radio powered by battery, solar or hand crank
Torch or head torch
Power bank or another way to charge your phone
Drinking water: 3 litres per person per day
Long-life food for 3 days
Cash, around € 70 in small notes
Matches or a lighter, and candles
Medication and first-aid supplies
Warm blankets
An agreement with your family: where do you meet if no one can be reached?

Want the full list with explanations? Read what should be in an emergency kit and what to do during a blackout.

Why an emergency radio belongs at the top of your list

In a major outage, information is the first thing you miss. How long will it last? Is it just your neighbourhood or the whole country? Do you need to do anything? That is exactly why an emergency radio is part of the emergency kit the government recommends. Radio stations keep broadcasting when the internet and the mobile network let you down.

Follesa DAB-373BT emergency radio with torch charging a phone during a power outage

The Follesa emergency radio (DAB-373BT)

We built the Follesa emergency radio for exactly this moment. Everything you need in those first hours is in one device:

DAB+ and FM: you can hear the news, even when your phone no longer works.
Built-in torch: instant light, without hunting for candles.
Charges your phone: so you can be reached as soon as the network is back.
Solar panel: it charges itself in daylight.
Hand crank: no sun? A few minutes of cranking and you have power again.

No wall socket needed, no batteries that run out just when you need them. It sits in the cupboard until the moment it counts.

Follesa emergency radio during a power outage

Hoping you never need it

The outage in Sittard-Geleen lasted eleven minutes. The next one could last longer. You don't need to be afraid, but you do need to be prepared. An emergency kit and an emergency radio in the cupboard give you peace of mind: you know you have it covered.

Family calmly listening to the emergency radio during a power outage