Commodities

Millions of Argentines Are in Darkness After Power Line Fire

  • Buenos Aires, provinces from north to south suffer outages
  • Up to 40% of electricity demand affected, local outlets report
A fire, on a high-tension line outside the Buenos Aires metro area, on March 1, 2023.Source: Secretaría de Energía de la República Argentina
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Swaths of Argentina were plunged into darkness on Wednesday after a fire on a power line led major parts of the grid to switch off.

The fire, on a high-tension line outside the Buenos Aires metro area, triggered a safety system to kick in and turn off several power plants and lines, according to a government spokeswoman. Engineers are rushing to fix the line and reconnect millions of Argentines nationwide, the Energy Secretariat said.