Honduras and Nicaragua experienced a massive power cuts, Salvador and Guatemala had partial outages
SAN SALVADOR, Sept 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A massive blackout has left thousands without electricity in at least four countries in central America, following a failure in the region’s electrical grid.
“At 11:48 (17:48GMT) there was an emergency in the Central American Electrical System due to a failure in the 230 kilowatt supply line in Honduras,” El Salvador’s electricity operator EOR said in a statement.
“A full blackout took place in the electricial systems of Nicaragua and Honduras,” EOR said, while adding that Guatemala and El Salvador only experienced partial outages.
The blackout continued until 19:55GMT, according to information provided by the Nicaraguan government.
Leonardo Deras, Energy Generation Manager of Hondura’s National Electricity Company, said the problem came as a result of an overload at a substation on the Caribbean Coast.
“When the fault occurred it was a time of maximum demand, therefore the protection systems [decided] that to prevent damage to the transmission lines it was better to disconnect,” Deras told local media.
Salvador Mansell, president of Nicaragua’s state power transmission company Enatrel, said the blackout hit his country’s capital, Managua and 15 other provinces.
Internet service and water distribution in parts of Managua, which relies on pumps, were also knocked out.
“The national blackout is already beginning to alter the road traffic in the Honduran capital and other cities in the country, where traffic lights have stopped working, ” the twitter account Trafico en Tegus wrote on Monday.
The four nations plus Costa Rica and Panama have shared a linked electrical network since the late 1980s. Costa Rica and Panama were not affected by the outage.
The latest blackout comes months after Argentina and Uruguay suffered a massive power failure that plunged millions into darkness. — NNN-AGENCIES
