Chile power outage plunges capital into darkness, hits major copper mines

SANTIAGO — A massive power outage across Chile plunged the country's capital Santiago into darkness on Tuesday (Feb 25) and knocked out electricity to major copper mines in the country's north, buffeting global metal markets.

Hours after the outage began and as darkness fell, Chile's government announced a state of emergency and established a curfew from 10pm to 6am local time from the northern region of Arica to the southern region of Los Lagos.

The widespread blackout was caused by a transmission line failure in the country's north, Interior Minister Carolina Toha said, ruling out a cyber attack as a cause.

Chile's largest power cut in years saw streetlights in the capital go dark, while sirens from emergency vehicles blared across the city, according to Reuters witnesses. The Santiago metro, which transports millions of passengers, was closed and passengers were evacuated from stalled trains.

"There's nothing. There's no cash. No money. Nothing," said Jose Luis Orlandini, who was eating in downtown Santiago when the outage hit.

The interior ministry said it was deploying the armed forces across the country to help maintain order.

As of 10pm about a quarter of the electrical grid's demand was back on line and power could be fully restored by morning, said Juan Carlos Olmedo, the board president of Chile's National Electricity Coordinator (CEN).

On Tuesday night, parts of Santiago, including the civic centre where the Moneda presidential palace is located, regained power, as did parts of the coastal cities of Valparaiso and Vina del Mar, according to Reuters witnesses and media reports.

"We've activated several power stations, mainly hydroelectric stations," Ernesto Huber, the CEN's executive director said, adding CEN was still investigating the cause of the outage.

The outage hit areas from the mining-intensive north to the central and southern regions home to most of the Andean country's population, and operations at key copper mines were affected. Chile is the world's top copper producer.

Escondida, the world's largest copper mine, was without electricity, a source close to the matter told Reuters, while state-owned copper miner Codelco said all its mines had been affected.

The Chuquicamata, Andina, Salvador and El Teniente mines were without power and its other mines were using backup power generation to operate on a partial basis, Codelco said.

Antofagasta and Anglo American both said that their mines were operating with generators.

The power outage affected the country from the northern Arica and Parinacota region to the southern Los Lagos region, according to Chile's national disaster prevention and response service SENAPRED. No emergency situations have been reported.

Chile's DGAC Civil Aviation Authority said that Santiago's Arturo Merino International Airport was operating normally but LATAM Airlines said some flights could be affected by the outage.

Toha said that power should start coming back online in the "coming hours."

"We hope that what we've been told will happen, that in the next few hours we'll have electrical service back," Toha said. "And if that's not the case, we'll have to take different measures."

Source: Reuters