Albania suffers the most electricity outages of any country in Europe and Eurasia, with its Balkan neighbor North Macedonia close behind, highlighting vulnerabilities in the continent’s power systems as climate change, rising demand and geopolitical shocks strain grids “like never before,” a new study shows.
Global cable manufacturer Wiringo ranked Albania at the bottom of its reliability index, recording around 40 outages annually – equal to about 65 hours without power per person. Tirana was hit by two major blackouts in the past 15 months, including one in January that cut electricity to large parts of the capital.
North Macedonia placed second, averaging 13 outages a year with more than six hours of downtime per person. Georgia and Armenia also reported multiple interruptions per customer, totaling six to seven hours annually.
Even some advanced economies face risks. Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, ranked 13th with almost two outages per year, while Norway – despite its near-100% supply continuity – placed 15th due to vulnerability to extreme weather such as heavy snow and falling trees. Switzerland ranked first for reliability, with virtually no outages, followed closely by Germany, France, the UK and Luxembourg, where annual downtime is less than 20 minutes per person.
Growing strain on Europe’s grid
“Grid resilience isn’t guaranteed by geography or EU membership. It depends on investment and modernisation,” said Hommer Zhao, a Wiringo director and global electronics expert. “As demand grows, outages in high-risk countries could worsen unless urgent upgrades are made.”
A continent-wide outage in April underscored the risks. Portugal, Spain and parts of France suffered a nearly 24-hour blackout that disrupted transport, forced hospitals to suspend operations and left millions without power. Analysts said the failure of a single interconnector linking the Iberian Peninsula to the rest of Europe magnified the disruption.
The World Economic Forum noted that while demand is rising due to economic growth and the rollout of technologies such as artificial intelligence, electricity generation is becoming more decentralised and variable. “The outage highlighted how every area of modern society can be affected if power drops,” it said.
Calls for smarter grids and EV integration
The International Energy Agency estimates global grid investment must double to more than €500 billion a year by 2030 to keep supplies stable. But experts warn capacity expansion alone will not be enough.
“It’s about building smarter, faster, and more flexible systems,” the Stockholm Environment Institute said. It highlighted electric vehicles as an untapped resource, noting that vehicle-to-grid systems allow cars and buses to feed electricity back to the grid during shortages.
“The Iberian blackout showed Europe is not doing enough to support the transition,” the institute added. “If we want secure, low-carbon, electrified societies, we need grid investment, more cross-border coordination, and a realistic understanding of what resilience really takes.”