A massive blackout left 20 million Argentines without electricity in the middle of a heat wave with temperatures hovering around 40 degrees. The event occurred at the end of Wednesday afternoon, but this Thursday thousands of people were still without electricity in their homes, businesses or industries.

The massive power cut occurred from “several failures in the interconnected system” from a grassland fire in the Campana area, in the north of the province of Buenos Aires, where the Atucha 1 nuclear power plant is located, that provides energy to millions of users. The fire activated the safety sensors and led to an automatic shutdown of the nuclear power plant.

“About 40% of the country’s total electricity demand was left without light, which is equivalent to more than six million homes or 20 million people,” highlighted ‘La Nación’. “The blackout caused, on a day of intense heat, the collapse of transportation, the paralysis of production plants and the loss of merchandise in homes and businesses. It also affected the water supply.”

The blackout occurred moments after President Alberto Fernández finished his opening speech for the legislative year and stated that the country is “substantially better.”

“Today we live substantially better than three years ago,” said the president, who closed 2022 with inflation of 95% per year, although he is considering running for re-election in the elections later this year.

Axel Kicillof, governor of the province of Buenos Aires, had to suspend his speech to open the parliamentary year due to the lack of electricity.

“The blackout was the product of a burning of pastures. Nobody in the sector understood how it could be that this incident, not so serious, could not be neutralized”, highlighted ‘La Nación’. “It happens, explained a technician, that sometimes there is no option because it operates at the limit. A combination of machines out of service and high demand due to heat can be lethal for the networks. But, deep down, there is a common denominator: infrastructure to the limit”.

Electricity rates are subsidized by the state in Argentina, and most users can pay their monthly bill for a cost equivalent to a few coffees.

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