Argentina’s main energy company says it’s “slowly beginning to restore” electricity after a massive power failure left large swathes of the South American country and neighboring Uruguay in the dark.
It’s unclear how many people are affected by the blackout, but the nations have a combined population of more than 45 million.
Edesur says on Twitter that power had been returned to 34,000 customers as of Sunday morning.
“The return of electricity generation to the interconnected system of the Federal Capital and Greater Buenos Aires has begun,” it says, noting the process would take several hours.
View of a closed gas station in downtown Buenos Aires on June 16, 2019 during a power cut. (ALEJANDRO PAGNI / AFP)
Uruguayan energy company UTE tweets that its system is being reinstated from scratch.
“There are already coastal cities with service and work continues toward general restoration,” it says .
It says the blackout was due to a “flaw in the Argentine network” which left the entire country and several regions of Uruguay without electricity.
Argentina’s energy secretary said that the blackout occurred around 7 a.m. local time, when a key interconnection system collapsed. It said the causes “are being investigated and are not yet determined.”
The blackout affected the entire Argentine capital of Buenos Aires, in addition to provinces in the north and south.
— AP
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