Uncommon blackout hits the Dominican Republic as crews scramble to revive energy

[ad_1] SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — A uncommon blackout hit the whole Dominican Republic on Tuesday, snarling site visitors and paralyzing companies within the nation of practically 11 million folks.

Officers blamed a failure within the grid’s transmission system, though it wasn’t instantly clear what brought on it.

Technology models in San Pedro de Macorís and the Quisqueya Energy Plant shut down, triggering a cascade of failures at different transmission and era vegetation, in response to the Dominican Electrical energy Transmission Firm, a decentralized state company.

It wasn’t instantly clear how shortly energy could be restored, however as of Tuesday night time, some 15% of the system was again on-line, in response to Power Minister Joel Santos.

“We’ll restore energy little by little,” he stated, including that transportation and well being have been among the many sectors with precedence.

Santos stated authorities are investigating what brought on the outage, noting that “{the electrical} system is complicated and requires in-depth evaluation earlier than a last report may be issued.”

The blackout disrupted mass transit methods together with aerial cable vehicles and the metro within the capital, Santo Domingo, the place some folks disembarked from the practice and commenced strolling by means of tunnels alongside the railway. Hospitals, banks and different giant establishments have been counting on mills, however many houses and small companies have been with out energy.

“Site visitors is already chaos in japanese Santo Domingo,” stated Tomás Ozuna, 37, as he headed to his night time shift as an IT employee. “I don’t understand how we’ll work.”

In the meantime, Lissa Fernández, 26, stated there was a generator on the financial institution the place she works, however she wasn’t certain how she would get house. “The metro isn’t operating. I've to determine the best way to get there,” she stated.

Leonel Encarnación, who owns a barbershop in Santo Domingo, stated his enterprise was full when the blackout hit.

“Ever because the air con shut down, the shoppers left,” he lamented.

A lot of the Dominican Republic’s vitality provide is fueled by oil and its merchandise, adopted by coal, pure gasoline, and to a lesser extent, photo voltaic, wind and hydroelectric energy, in response to the Worldwide Power Company.

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Observe AP’s protection of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

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