Millions hit by power outage in South America

World Monday 17/June/2019 11:50 AM
By: Times News Service
Millions hit by power outage in South America

Buenos Aires: Millions of people across South America were plunged into darkness after a massive power outage on Sunday.

People were affected by the outage in Argentina, Uruguay,Paraguay, southern Brazil, and parts of Chile, according to reports.

Electricity supply company Edesur Argentina stated at the time that a massive collapse in " the interconnected system left all of Argentina and Uruguay without electricity. The fault lies in the external networks to Edesur."

The entire population of both countries amounts to approximately 47 million people.

Argentina's southernmost province of Tierra del Fuego was not affected since it is not connected to the national electrical interconnected system.

"An important part of the High Tension system has been restored and services are being connected," the Uruguayan state-run company National Administration of Power Plants and Electrical Transmissions (UTE) said in a statement.

While power has been restored to the vast majority of affected areas, the cause of the blackout remains unknown.

Argentina's President Mauricio Macri has called for a complete investigation into the incident, which occurred as voters were heading to the polls in local elections
The causes of the outage were under investigation and had "not yet been determined," Argentina's Ministry of Energy recently said.