Power returns for some in Santiago after 40-minute blackout

Power has been restored to parts of the Chilean capital following a nationwide blackout Wednesday.

At 2:39 A.M. Wednesday local time, Xinhua News Agency's Office in Santiago fell into complete darkness, as well as the rest of the Chilean capital and most of the regions from Taltal to Chiloe, after a nationwide blackout.

The latest blackout, the second in two days, has again been blamed on a failure in Chile's Central Interconnected System (SIC) and has left the country largely without power. The areas where power has been restored were without power for about 40 minutes.

On Tuesday, a problem was found in Polpaico's 1800MW substation, which caused a blackout from 10:46 A.M.and affected approximately 30 percent of consumption in 11 regions.

It took almost three hours for some areas to recover from the power loss, which was attributed to wrongly handled technical work by transmission company Transelec, Chilean Minister of Energy Ricardo Raineri said Wednesday.

"I have asked the Superintendency of Electricity and Fuel (Patricia Chotzen) to initiate an investigation as soon as possible," Raineri said.

The Center for Economic Load Dispatch (CDEC) would also report on the latest blackout, with a final report due within 15 days, he said.

The latest blackout caused traffic jams in Santiago, and some government facilities were disabled temporarily. Large parts of the capital city remain in darkness and no information on the repair work has been reported.

Source: Xinhua