Gas supply to the small island of Jersey, located off the coast of Northern France, has been disrupted for 5 days following a software failure that caused the main system to shut down. Engineers have been unable to restore gas supply to homes and businesses on the island.
On October 7, gas supplies were halted on the island. The following day, ISland Energy, the gas supplier, announced that its La Collette systems had automatically shut off to protect the network, but the backup systems also failed. The company warned that it may take up to 2 weeks to restore gas supplies.
The reason for the shutdown at the plant was determined to be “malicious code,” according to BBC News. Plant representatives stated that the electricity at the factory was initially cut off, resulting in the plant’s operations being halted. Simultaneously, the backup systems failed due to the malicious code.
The Jersey authorities have advised residents to turn off their gas supply at home and report their actions to ISland Energy, according to local media reports. Despite the presence of automatic security systems, the supplier is seeking to assess the safety of restoring gas supplies based on the number of respondents. If there are enough participants, the process of independent recovery could be expedited to a few days.