Electrical Failure Leaves Argentina and Uruguay Without Electricity
A widespread power failure left all of Argentina and Uruguay along with parts of Paraguay and without electricity on Sunday morning.
The problems started at approximately 7:07am local time when there was a collapse of the Argentine Interconnection System (SADI). This caused a massive power outage that affected Uruguay and Paraguay also. Almost 50 million people across South America were affected by this power outage.
EDESUR, an Argentinian electricity company said that as of 10:52am local time, 75,000 of their clients had their electricity supply restored but it would take several hours to normalise the service again.
The Power Outage was most severe due to the time it happened according to the Argentine Secretariat of Energy as there was low demand on the system meaning some power plants weren’t online to help cover the load and restore power sooner.
The cause of the power outage was reportedly due to a failure in the high voltage power lines connecting the Yacyreta dam to Buenos Aires.
Videos were posted online showing large areas of Argentina and uruguay in darkness in the early hours of the morning after the power failure.
This video shows Buenos Aires in darkness this morning due to the power failure.