Mexico: massive power outage due to winter storm in …

A power outage today left more than three million people without power in six states in northern Mexico, due to a winter storm in the United States that interrupted gas delivery to the country of America Latin, the Mexican government reported.

“Of the 4,766,901 users in the northern region of the country, 3,088,517 have been affected and so far, electricity service has been restored to 65%,” the Federal Commission reported in the afternoon. State Electricity (CFE)), National Supply Manager, on his Twitter account.

“Significant” cuts to gas supplies from the United States began to emerge on Monday due to the pipeline freeze, which affected local power plants that use the fuel. The affected facilities are located in the northern states of Sinaloa, Sonora, Durango, Chihuahua, Coahuila and Nuevo León, at a time when these areas are suffering from freezing temperatures due to the polar vortex affecting North America.

Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador initially estimated the number of affected users to reach 400,000, but that figure was later increased by the state-owned company.

The cut in gas supply has caused the shutdown of power plants and “the loss of certain elements of the national transmission network,” said Cenace, the administrator of the wholesale electricity market in Mexico.

The imbalance “between load and production” has affected some 6,950 megawatts of load in northern and northeastern Mexico, Cenace added on his Twitter account.