Massive blackout hits Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula

Associated Press
Updated ·1 min read
15

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A massive electricity blackout hit Mexico’s resort-studded Yucatan Peninsula Wednesday, leaving as many as 1.3 million customers with power.

The blackout affected almost two-thirds of households in the states of Yucatan, Campeche and Quintana Roo, where resorts like Cancun and Tulum are located.

The country’s Federal Electricity Commission said the blackout was caused by an accident involving an employee doing maintenance work on a high-tension line. It said the worker survived and is being treated at a hospital.

The commission said power had been restored to about 36% of the households affected.

It was the latest embarrassment for the government power utility, which President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has made a priority of promoting.

López Obrador has tried to stave off inroads by private electrical generation plants, many of which use renewable energy and are cleaner than the commission's old plants that burn fuel oil.

López Obrador has angered private and foreign investors by giving government-owned plants priority in electricity purchases.