Start to restore service after a massive power outage – Telam

A mbadive power outage affects the 7 am in the entire country, Uruguay and southern Paraguay, "due to a failure of the Argentine interconnection system (SADI)", have informed the energy authorities, while the companies Edenor and Edesur indicated that the service had begun to be restored in some areas, although the total recovery of energy "may last until sunday ".

Because of the mbadive cutoff, Premetro metro and subway lines as well as some train services are not working, while hospitals are equipped with generators and water tanks, while Aysa has asked users to "make rational use of the water."

Four hours after the start of the break, the causes of which were not explained, Edenor stressed that "the powering process had already begun from the most powerful points of the system, the hydroelectric power stations of Yacyretá, Chocón and Salto Great Transener has opened the system and is powered up again to be able to regulate the service. "

In the Edenor region, supply began to gradually normalize in the cities of San Isidro, Boulogne, Martinez, Loma Hermosa, San Martin, Tigre, Pilar, Las Heras, Hurlingham, February 3, Vicente Lopez and La Matanza.
Edesur, meanwhile, said at 1:20 pm that 700,000 people were receiving standardized service at that time.

"The standardization work is ongoing and could last all Sunday," said Edesur.

Very early, social networks exploded with the novelty of the gigantic blackout, criticized for the lack of information.
The first official information was provided by the Secretary of State for Energy: "At 7:07 pm There was the collapse of the Argentine Interconnection System (SADI), which resulted in a mbadive power outage all over the country, which also affected Uruguay, "said the Secretariat of Energy in a statement.

"The causes are under study and are not yet determined." The recovery in the Cuyo, NOA and Comahue regions has already begun and the rest of the system is being opened to continue the full recovery, which should take some hours, "it was said.

At 10 am, Edenor said that "in three hours, the electrical service could begin to be gradually restored," while Edesur said that "the standardization process will begin, which will require many hours".
Shortly afterwards, Edesur stated that the service was beginning to be re-established "due to the entry of the Barragán Thermal Power Plant", while "the Costanera (at Costanera Sur, CABA) and South Dock (at South of Greater Buenos Aires) to restart your service ".

The company Edesur told Telam that "this is the first time in the country" a widespread reduction of this magnitude by a "collapse of the interconnected national communication system", which "we do not know what was the origin nor when completely restores the service "because" this time, the companies are not the origin but part of the consequences ".
"This is a widespread blackout throughout the country, where nearly 40 million Argentines are affected, as well as in Uruguay," Martinez explained.

"What is done, is to start with the first maneuvers to generate energy and so, distributors can normalize their customers," added Martinez.

The spokesperson explained that the interconnected national system "is the way Argentina is electrically connected" and that, as happens with the body's circulatory system, for example, "when it stops pumping, all is cut".

Martínez also ruled out that the problem is caused by the rainy weather affecting the center of the country.
At the same time, Edenor said through social networks that the origin of the mbadive reduction "would have been due to a failure of the Yacyretá transport system".

"This caused the cut automatically (without human intervention)," they explained.

"The percentage of losses was high given the timing in which they occurred, the demand was low, the rest of the producers could not compensate the losses," they added.

The gigantic power outage has affected all of Uruguay and southern Paraguay.