The worst possible place to open a frozen food business in Europe? It’s probably Albania.
The country has been ranked as the worst blackout-affected country in Europe and Eurasia in a study by global cable manufacturer Wiringo.
On average, Albania experiences around 40 outages per year, which translates to about 65 hours without power per person. Far more than anywhere else on the continent.
In the summer of 2024, the country was hit by a major outage along with other Balkan countries like Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Albania’s capital, Tirana, was again hit by a major outage in early January 2025.
Albania’s neighbour, North Macedonia, comes in second, with around 13 blackouts a year and more than six hours of power outages per person.
Georgia and Armenia also face frequent, long-lasting outages, totalling between six and seven hours per year, with multiple interruptions per customer.
Italy, the EU’s third-largest economy, ranks 13th out of 38 countries, with almost two outages per year.
Surprisingly, Norway lands at number 15. Despite having one of the most reliable power grids in the world—with almost 100% supply continuity (99.99%)— the country is at risk of being hit by extreme weather events, resulting in heavy snowfall and falling strees.
At the other end of the spectrum, Switzerland takes the crown for the most reliable electricity supply, with virtually zero outages a year (just 0.19 on average).
Germany, France, the UK and Luxembourg also rank among the best, with less than 20 minutes of annual downtime per person.
‘Europe’s power grid is being tested as never before’
While many countries have reliable electricity supplies, Hommer Zhao, Director at Wiringo and global electronics manufacturing expert, explains that Europe’s electricity systems are being “tested like never before.”
“Grid resilience isn’t guaranteed by geography or EU membership, and it depends on how much investment and modernisation have gone into local infrastructure,” he says.
“As demand grows, outages in high-risk countries could worsen unless urgent upgrades are made.”
In April 2025, Portugal, Spain, and, to a lesser extent, France suffered a massive blackout of nearly 24 hours. This caused widespread disruption to public transport and forced hospitals to suspend operations.
In its comment on the incident, the World Economic Forum said that while “electricity demand is growing due to factors including economic development and the rollout of new technology such as artificial intelligence,” power generation is becoming “more decentralised and variable.”
“The outage highlighted how every area of modern society can be affected if power drops.”
Later assessments suggested that the blackout followed a series of grid incidents taking place across the space of just five seconds.
The fact that Spain and Portugal are connected to the rest of Europe by just a single major interconnector, which failed during the blackout, made the system more vulnerable to blackouts, experts say.
Can EVs be Europe’s easy fix to blackouts?
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), global grid investments should be doubled by 2030, from roughly €255 billion to over €500 billion, to ensure electricity supply remains stable.
The Stockholm Environment Institute warns that more capacity alone won’t be enough.
“It’s about building smarter, faster, and more flexible systems that can accommodate the rapid growth of variable renewables, electric vehicles and heat pumps.”
“One largely untapped resource is the growing fleet of electric vehicles (EVs),” the organisation says.
“Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) systems allow EVs to supply electricity back to the grid during moments of instability. Public bus fleets, for example, are ideal candidates: they have large batteries, predictable schedules and a centralised depot.”
The institute also says the big Iberian blackout was a sign that Europe is not doing “enough to support the transition.”
“If we want secure, low-carbon, electrified societies, we need more than just clean generation. We need grid investment, more grid flexibility through batteries and V2G, cross-border coordination and a more realistic understanding of what resilience really takes.”
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