“Unnecessary operations” in the system of Chilean electric company Isa Interchile caused a nationwide blackout Tuesday afternoon, prompting President Gabriel Boric on the far left. declare Continued emergency and curfew Wednesday morning.
The Blackout effectively shut down the country and was the worst country in the country since the magnitude 8.8 earthquake in March 2010. Additionally, the power cut forced the ongoing Viñadel Mar Music Festival Rescheduling Programme on Saturday, March 1st.
According to At least three people are medically dependent on electricity on Chilean government officials I'm dead Power is out of power. At the time of writing, it remains unclear whether the death was directly caused by a power outage or a shortage of backup generators. Chileans Health Minister Ximena Aguilera said a clinical audit will be conducted to determine possible liability for the deaths of three individuals.
It was electricity Restoration As of Wednesday morning, 90% of Chilean households have reported intermittent power in some cities. The same morning, Reuters relay That “m”Ajor Copper Mines slowly returned online. ”
Juan Carlos Olmedo, Head of the Board of Directors of National Electric Coordinator (CEN), I explained it A power outage occurred at 3:16pm local time late Tuesday evening as a result of “unwanted operations” of the north power line control and protection system.
“It's like an automated system with logic that needs to work properly,” he explained. “On this occasion, it didn't follow that logic. It didn't work according to the logic that was expected.”
“In the event of this type of failure, we will conduct a rigorous investigation into the operation of all control systems that generate plants and transmission lines,” Olmedo said.
The same goes for Minister of Public Security Carolina Toha. Confirmed The outage was due to a system failure, and the attack was ruled out as a cause. Toha announcement The Chilean government will do so on Wednesday morning Action You will receive a “full investigation” to determine the reasons behind the blackout, as well as sanctions that the person in charge may have found. The minister argued that power outages should never have occurred in accordance with the country's current standards and regulations.
“Chile has a system with a safeguard that has a way to deal with such outages. This must work correctly and if it fails, we must force the norms we have as a country and sanctions that respond to that failure,” she said.
Toha also revealed that 207 individuals were arrested during the emergency use period.
“Some of the arrested are curfew offenders, while others were arrested in Flagrante Delicto.
President Gabriel Borick tackled the power outages of the time on Tuesday evening. He provided details about the failure of the ISA Interchile system as power slowly recovered throughout the night. Borick stressed that his government “will not let go of this,” and insisted that his administration would act firmly against businesses that have not “revived on opportunity.”
“It is unbearable that the daily lives of millions of Chilean men and women will be affected by the responsibilities of one or more companies, so it is Chile's duty to enforce those responsibilities,” the president said. “But now, [Energy Minister Diego] Pardow said at a previous press conference that all of our energy is focused on businesses complying with the recovery of the system and providing electricity throughout the national territory.
Isa Interchile, a subsidiary of Colombian conglomerate ISA; Share a statement The event on dual circuit power lines has led to “unavailability of electrical services that have affected the country” due to the local outlet on Wednesday morning.
The company said it is currently investigating the reasons for the incident “originally caused by the unnecessary activation of its protection scheme,” leading to circuits on the line being automatically cut off.
Isa Interchile further claimed that the ground team could recover electricity “as soon as possible” and that power recovery was achieved at 4pm local time, or 44 minutes after the outage began.
“We will also work with an investigation into the inability to use electrical services that have affected the country and its recovery plans,” the company said.
Spanish News Agency EFE It has been reported that “Severe material damage has been reported at both critical infrastructure and at the national level, as electricity returns have affected refrigerators, washing machines, dishwashers and other appliances.”
That's what the Scotia Bank branch in Santiago, Chile It was stolen During the blackout, a group of unidentified individuals stole around P400 million, or about $424,000. Chilean prosecutor Javiera Inostroza told reporters there was not much background information about the robbery as bank security cameras were not recorded during the blackout, but evidence suggests that the attackers had broken into the window before violating the vault.
Christian K. Calzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
