Nationwide blackout hits Dominican Republic
A transmission line fault knocks out power for the second time in three months.
The Dominican Republic was plunged into a nationwide blackout on Monday after a major failure in its national power grid, authorities said. The outage, which struck around 10:50 a.m., disrupted traffic, halted public transport and forced some businesses to close as crews worked to restore electricity.
Energy and Mines Minister Joel Santos said the collapse was triggered by a malfunction in a transmission line switch that sent the system into protection mode. The state-owned Dominican Electricity Transmission Company added that the country's main power plants unexpectedly cut output before midday, leading to cascading shutdowns across the network.
By mid-afternoon, the grid had recovered to nearly 30% of normal capacity. Hospitals, water systems, airports and mass transit were operating on backup generators, Santos said. The Caribbean nation, where power outages are relatively common, last experienced a nationwide blackout in November...
