Santiago, Feb 25 (EFE).- A general blackout affecting 99% of Chile and two Argentine provinces left millions of people without power on Tuesday amid a severe heatwave.
The Office of the National Electrical Coordinator reported that at 03:16 pm local time, there was an interruption in the electricity supply from Arica to the Los Lagos region caused by a break in the 500 kV transmission system in Norte Chico.
The Service Recovery Plan has been activated to restore service as quickly as possible, and an investigation is underway to determine the causes of the outage, following established protocol.
The National Electrical Coordinator, responsible for the operation of the electricity system over a distance of more than 3,100 km (1,926 miles), informed the relevant authorities of the situation, who immediately activated the Service Recovery Plan to restore consumption as quickly as possible.
They also stated that the causes of this blackout will be investigated and analyzed by the protocol foreseen for this type of contingency after informing the competent authority of its occurrence.
The Presidency also announced that the President Gabriel Boric, was at the Carabineros de Chile Operational Management Center to monitor the emergency.
Moments earlier, the Ministry of the Interior announced that a special meeting had been called to analyze the causes, which could be related to the forest fires.
In Santiago, banks, shops and shopping centers are closed, traffic lights are off and the suburban metro is out of service.
According to EFE, the emergency meeting at the Chilean National Disaster Prevention and Response Service (SENAPRED) was attended by ministers from most of the cabinet, such as the interior, energy, health, public works, environment, as well as the t Chiefs of Staff, Carabineros, firefighters and investigative police.
The National Electrical Coordinator is the operator of the National Electricity System, which runs from the northern region of Arica, on the border with Peru, to the southern archipelago of Chiloé. This body is responsible for ensuring that the system operates safely, at minimum cost, and with open access. EFE
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