SANTO DOMINGO (Reuters) -Officials in the Dominican Republic on Tuesday said they had restored some of the country’s electricity supply after a nationwide outage earlier in the day. The national power system was being gradually restored following a failure at 1:23 p.m. (1723 GMT) at the San Pedro I substation, which triggered the blackout, the […]
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Dominican Republic begins restoring power after nationwide blackout
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SANTO DOMINGO (Reuters) -Officials in the Dominican Republic on Tuesday said they had restored some of the country’s electricity supply after a nationwide outage earlier in the day.
The national power system was being gradually restored following a failure at 1:23 p.m. (1723 GMT) at the San Pedro I substation, which triggered the blackout, the state power company said in a statement, citing Energy and Mines Minister Joel Santos Echavarria.
“We currently have over 527 megawatts generating power, representing more than 15% of the national demand, and this number will continue to increase as the stabilization process progresses,” Echavarria said during a press conference held at the Energy Control Center.
Power has already been restored in parts of Santiago, San Cristobal, Santo Domingo Norte and southern areas of the country, he added.
Electricity sector authorities said some public transportation services had resumed in parts of the capital and were operating free of charge.
Hydroelectric plants were the first to reconnect to the system, followed by several thermal plants, in a gradual process aimed at ensuring grid stability and security, authorities added.
(Reporting by Paul Mathiasen, Writing by Natalia Siniawski, Editing by Brendan O’Boyle)