As lights turned back on across Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay after a massive blackout that hit tens of millions people, authorities yesterday were still largely in the dark about what caused the collapse of the interconnected grid and were tallying the damage from the unforeseen disaster.
Argentine President Mauricio Macri promised a thorough investigation into what he called an “unprecedented” outage, one that raised questions about flaws in South America’s grid, which connects many of the region’s largest countries.
Energy officials said the results of the investigation would be available in 10 to 15 days, and they could not immediately provide details on the economic impact of the outage, which came on a Sunday, and a day before a national holiday in Argentina.
Photo: AFP / Noticias Argentinas / Juan Vargas
Argentine Secretary of Energy Gustavo Lopetegui said the blackout began with a failure in the country’s “interconnection system,” adding that it happens in other countries as well.
However, a chain of events took place later, causing a total disruption, he said.
“This is an extraordinary event that should have never happened,” he told a news conference on Sunday. “It’s very serious. We can’t leave the whole country all of a sudden without electricity.”
He did not discount the possibility of a cyberattack, but said it was unlikely.
The collapse began at about 7am on Sunday, with Argentina and residents of Uruguay and some areas of Paraguay waking up to Father’s Day in the dark.
Public transportation was halted in Buenos Aires, while telephone and Internet communications were disrupted, water supplies were cut off and shops and restaurants closed.
Patients dependent on home medical equipment were urged to go to hospitals with generators.
Power was fully restored by Sunday night, but the outage ignited questions about Argentina’s preparedness and lack of investment in the power system at a time when the country is going through a deep economic crisis with soaring inflation, a tumbling of the local currency and a spike in utility bills fueled by austerity measures ordered by Macri.
“The country is already in a weird moment and then you wake up and can’t see anything,” said Julieta Dodda, 27, a saleswoman at a clothing store in Buenos Aires. “Many people were going to meet for lunch to celebrate the day. I saw many online who joked: “Happy Father’s Day from Edesur and Edenor, which are our electricity companies.”
Several Argentine provinces on Sunday had elections for governor, which proceeded with voters using their cellphone screens and built-in flashlights to illuminate their ballots.
Energy officials defended the strength of the Argentine system, saying it’s “robust” and exceeding in supplies, but the grid has been known for being in a state of disrepair.
The failure originated at an electricity transmission point between the power stations at Yacyreta dam and Salto Grande in the country’s northeast.
Uruguay’s energy company UTE said the failure in the Argentine system also cut power to all of Uruguay for hours and blamed the collapse on a “flaw in the Argentine network.”
In Paraguay, power in rural communities in the south, near the border with Argentina and Uruguay, was also cut.
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