'Massive' power outage hits Argentina and Uruguay
A massive power failure has hit Argentina, Uruguay and other parts of South America, reportedly affecting more than 40 million people.
The outage has caused trains to be halted and failures with traffic signalling, according to Argentina media reports.
“A massive failure in the electrical interconnection system left all of Argentina and Uruguay without power,” electricity supplier Edesur Argentina said on Twitter.
Edenor, a power distributor for Argentine capital Buenos Aires and its suburbs, also gave notice of the outage on Twitter, as did Uruguay’s energy supplier, UTE, which said the power went out shortly after 7 a.m. local time.
By 11 a.m. local time, Edesur tweeted that service has been restored to about 75,000 customers. It had said the process would take several hours.
Uruguayan energy company UTE tweeted that the system was being reinstated.
“There are already coastal cities with service and work continues toward general restoration,” it said.
Together, Argentina and Uruguay have a population of about 48 million.
The BBC reports the outage is thought to have originated in Argentina.
Una falla masiva en el sistema de interconexión eléctrica dejó sin energía a toda la Argentina y Uruguay. Ampliaremos con más información. <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/SinLuz?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#SinLuz</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/CortedeLuz?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#CortedeLuz</a>
—@OficialEdesur