The accident affected more than 6 million homes – almost 40% of the total number of consumers. In some provinces, transport, businesses and water supplies stopped, and in Buenos Aires, rescuers pulled people stuck in 18 elevators at the same time.
In Argentina, on March 2, about 20 million people were left without electricity due to a fire in pastures that stopped the work of the Atucha I nuclear power plant. About this writes the local edition of La Nacion.
The light went out in most of Buenos Aires and several provinces. The accident affected more than 6 million homes – almost 40% of the total number of consumers in the country. The incident caused a stop of transport and industrial enterprises, in some areas the water supply was cut off.
Argentina is experiencing the ninth wave of drought
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The Ministry of Energy of the country said that they were investigating the causes of power failures, the fire could have occurred due to high temperatures and drought. The Pagina12 edition adds that Argentina is experiencing the 9th wave of drought, the temperature is kept at 36 degrees.
“Given the imbalance, the system reacts and cuts off the generation of electricity for its own protection. As a result, there is no electricity in the provinces of Santa Fe, Cordoba, Mendoza, San Juan and in the northwestern part of the country,” the Argentine Ministry of Energy quoted the publication as saying.
Economy Minister Sergio Massa asked law enforcement officers to investigate the cause of the fire.
State company Nucleoelectrica, which is responsible for the operation of the Atucha I nuclear power plant, said that the plant is not working due to problems with the network and interference on the line. It is planned to restore the work of the station at least in 48 hours.
Atucha I is located 100 km from the city of Buenos Aires
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Transener, which operates most of the high-voltage lines, said that 3 high-voltage lines that link converter stations to the coastal zone were out of order as a result of the fire.
After 3 hours of power outage in the country, they began to restore power supply, Todo Noticias reported. The Clarín edition calls the accident the largest in the last 4 years.
In parts of the districts of Buenos Aires, firefighters had to help people stuck in 18 elevators at the same time. Argentina’s second nuclear power plant, Atucha II, has been shut down since 2022 due to maintenance work.
Recall that in Ukraine for 2 weeks they have not introduced planned and emergency blackouts after rocket attacks by the Russian army. DTEK warned about the resumption of rolling blackouts in preparation for next winter.
Ukrainian power engineers repaired more than 4,000 power facilities, more than 7 million subscribers received electricity.
