Power outages hit Buenos Aires metropolitan area

A power outage left more than 900,000 homes without electricity Tuesday night, according to the National Electricity Regulatory Entity (ENRE). As a heat wave pushed temperatures higher across the country ahead of New Years Eve, more than 10,000 households remained without power Wednesday morning, according to ENRE figures. The outage began Tuesday evening and initially affected more than 45,000 users. By 6 p.m., the number had fallen to about 25,000, most of them Edesur customers. Edesur is one of the two main electricity distributors in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area. A new demand peak around 9 p.m. triggered another massive outage that extended overnight. By 4 a.m., Edesur said on its social media channels that more than 50% of customers affected by a failure at the Bosques substation had regained service. The company added that technical teams remained on site to restore power. At that time, though, ENRE reported that the number of users without electricity had peaked at more than 950,000. Power outages were reported in the districts of Quilmes, Lomas de Zamora, Lans, Berazategui, Ezeiza and Almirante Brown, as well as in several neighborhoods of Buenos Aires City, including Recoleta, Flores and Caballito. Edesur said the outage was caused by a failure at its Bosques substation in Buenos Aires province, disrupting service at several substations across Buenos Aires City and Greater Buenos Aires. Service will be restored in stages, the company said. Weather forecasts predict maximum temperatures near 40 degrees Celsius, a scenario that could strain the electrical grid again and lead to further outages throughout the day and during the evening festivities. Edesur and Edenor handle most of the electricity distribution in the Greater Buenos Aires area, a densely populated region where peak consumption often tests the infrastructure. With information from mbito