Residents across Argentina were hit by a massive power cut on Wednesday as temperatures soared above 35 degrees Celsius.
The massive outage, which hit around around 4.30pm local time, affected large swathes of the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (AMBA), hitting several neighbourhoods in Buenos Aires City and large parts of the Conurbano, the populous region that encircles the capital.
Users on social networks also reported widespread power cuts in Mendoza, Santa Fe, Córdoba, Neuquén and other provinces.
According to initial reporting by several local outlets, the power cut came after the Atucha I nuclear power plant went offline. A second nuclear power plant, Atucha II, has been out of service since last year due to maintenance work.
Nucleoeléctrica, the state firm in charge of operating Atucha I, told the La Nación newspaper that "a problem with the grid took us out of service."
Government sources told Noticias Argentinas that the outage was caused by "several failures in the interconnected system", including the shutdown of the Atucha I nuclear power plant. They said the cause of the power cut would be investigated.
The websites of both the ENRE (Ente Nacional Regulador de la Electricidad) national regulator and Cammesa, the firm that manages the local electricity market went offline.
The electricity failure arrived as 11 provinces in the centre and east of the country were in the midst of a heatwave, with temperatures surpassing 35 degrees Celsius in several regions.
Buenos Aires City recorded the hottest summer since records began in 1906 over the 2022-2023 period with an average temperature of 25.6 degrees, according to the National Meteorological Service (SMN).
In the capital, power outages were reported in Colegiales, Villa Lugano, Parque Patricios, Mataderos, Palermo and Caballito, among others.
Electricity failures were also reported in the provinces of Jujuy, Salta, San Luis, Tucumán, La Pampa, La Rioja and Santiago del Estero.
– TIMES
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