MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Power cuts hit Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area and other parts of Argentina

The real problem will come when there are 3 consecutive hot days, it was explained

Several areas in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (AMBA) and Rosario in the province of Santa Fe have been suffering prolonged power cuts which enraged residents who, in addition, were deprived of state subsidies on their electricity bills and are therefore paying full fare in exchange for... literally nothing.

In the country's capital, blackouts were predominant in the middle-to-lower-class neighborhoods of Recoleta, Palermo, Caballito, Villa Crespo, Mataderos, Villa Lugano, Mataderos, Parque Avellaneda, parts of San Telmo and Nueva Pompeya while suburbs in the Province of Buenos Aires such as Luis Guillón, Avellaneda, Hurlingham, Banfield, Casanova, Pilar, José C. Paz, and Claypole were in the dark.

In Lugano, not exactly the safest place to wander at night with no lighting, a strong police operation was deployed as neighbors tried to fully block a street in protest.

Meanwhile, federal authorities downplayed the importance of these cuts and claimed that the real challenge would come after three straight days of intense heat.

Mario Cairella, Executive Vice President of the Wholesale Electricity Market Management Company (Cammesa), told Clarín that the Argentine Interconnection System (SADI) “passed this first test.” “The power cuts that occurred in the wholesale market were quickly recovered,” he analyzed. “We would have preferred not to have had any outages because what happened Thursday was not a major test, but it shows that the Argentine electrical system is not as robust as it should be,” he also reckoned. “The next important test will be when we accumulate 3 days like today, with this extreme heat,” he added.

In addition, a storm front in the northeastern province of Misiones tumbled down trees and electricity poles causing power outages in several areas of Posadas, the province's capital. Foul weather affected Thursday large parts of bordering Brazil's southeast and appears to be heading south. Heavy storms have been forecast for the Greater Buenos Aires area during the weekend.