Around 4:30 p.m. this Wednesday, a massive blackout It left almost half the country without electricity service, which in turn affected the provision of various services at the national level, such as water and public transportation.
According to official sources, the cut occurred after a grassland fire broke out in the Buenos Aires town of Campana, which affected the 500 kw high-voltage line that connects Campana with General Rodríguez and then generated the massive blackoutbecause there was a “rejection of load from the electrical network of the National Interconnected System”.
As reported by Nucleoeléctrica Argentina SA, this led the Atucha 1 power plant to go out of service for safety reasons, and as a consequence, the massive blackout It affected several provinces, especially Santa Fe, Córdoba, Mendoza, San Juan and the South of Northeast Argentina.
The Government estimated that around 20 million users were affectedsince a large part of the AMBA (Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area), Córdoba, Santa Fe, La Rioja, Tucumán, La Pampa, Río Negro, Neuquén, Mendoza and San Juan were without electricity for more than two hours.
Although the service was restored little by little, and at 7:30 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. all the high-voltage lines were operating normally, as reported by the Ministry of Energy this Thursday, some parts of the country continue without supply, especially the northern zone. and west of the suburbs present the largest number of EDENOR users without electricity today.
Likewise, there are still no electricity or service failures in Malvinas Argentinas, Pilar, San Miguel, February 3, Escobar, San Martín, Ituzaingó, La Matanza, Merlo, Moreno, Morón, Caseros, San Isidro, Tigre and Vicente López. In the City of Buenos Aires, the affected neighborhoods are Palermo, Villa Urquiza, Belgrano and Colegiales.
As for EDESUR users, Lanús, Quilmes, Avellaneda, Berazategui, Florencio Varela, Almirante Brown, Lomas de Zamora and San Vicente remain with cuts or failures. In the City, the neighborhoods that continue without service are Caballito, Flores, Villa Crespo, La Boca, Barracas, Pompeya, Monserrat, Monte Castro, Recoleta, Villa del Parque, Lugano, Villa Luro, Villa Real, Soldati and Villa Santa Rita.
The Government denounced that the fire was intentional
The Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, who is responsible for the Ministry of Energy, filed a complaint to investigate whether the fire that caused the power outage in almost half the country it was intentional.
In a letter presented before Judge Adrián González Charvay, in charge of the Campana Federal Court of First Instance, the minister requested that “the necessary measures be established in order to investigate, prosecute and, where appropriate, arrest those responsible for the very serious Events occurred”.
