Power Restored In Greenland Capital Nuuk After Strong Winds Plunge City Into Darkness

Power has been fully restored in Nuuk after a citywide outage late Saturday left around 20,000 residents without electricity, water and heating, Greenland’s state-run utility said on Sunday.

“We can now confirm that the entire city again has electricity, water and heating,” Nukissiorfiit said in a Facebook update early Sunday. Internet services, which were also disrupted during the blackout, have since stabilised, though some residents reported brief interruptions even after restoration.

The outage began around 10:30 pm local time when strong winds triggered a fault on the transmission line supplying power from the Buksefjorden hydroelectric plant, the utility said. Emergency generators were deployed, allowing partial restoration within about

three hours, while residents were urged to conserve electricity as repair work continued overnight.

Nukissiorfiit clarified that the fault was caused by weather conditions and not at the fjord crossing itself. Police emergency phone lines and internet connectivity were temporarily affected during the outage, internet monitoring service NetBlocks said.

The blackout came just days after Greenland’s government circulated a brochure advising residents on crisis preparedness, including storing food, drinking water, medicines and warm clothing sufficient for at least five days.

The timing of the outage also fuelled speculation on social media, linking it to renewed geopolitical tensions after Donald Trump reiterated his interest in Greenland. In an interview with the New York Post published on Saturday, Trump said the US would gain sovereignty over areas of Greenland where American military bases are located, adding that “interesting talks” were ongoing.

Trump’s remarks followed a recent meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, where he claimed a “framework” had been reached on Greenland. While officials have stressed that the power outage was purely weather-related, the broader political backdrop has added to public unease around the incident.