Europeupdated 47m ago2 min read
Archive photo · 21 March 2019La Palma Total Blackout Leaves 50,508 Subscribers Without Power After Electrical System Failure
6 Western Mainstream5 Other1 Asian2 Other source typesPhoto: H. Zell, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Cropped for layout
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Blackout affected 50,508 customers on La Palma. Power was restored at 10:26 a.m. after about four hours.
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La Palma goes dark
La Palma suffered a total blackout after a drop in electricity supply left the entire island in darkness, with a general failure of the electrical system recorded at 06:42 hours. Red Eléctrica said 50,508 subscribers were affected and began work to restore the system, while the Guinchos-Valle 66 kilowatts line remained out of service due to an incident earlier that morning prior to zero. Fernando Clavijo, president of the Government of the Canary Islands, said, "Watching La Palma closely" as Plateca was activated across the island.
The Government of the Canary Islands declared an alert situation Plateca across the island because the complete interruption of the electricity supply could affect essential services, and the island had been under maximum alert since 2:00 AM due to rainfall. The blackout was linked in reporting to electrical storms derived from a heavy episode of rainfall, with convective activity developing with notable intensity in the east of the island.
Storm, lightning, restoration
Authorities said a lightning strike hit an electrical substation around 4 am, sparking a fire that knocked out medium- and low-voltage lines, and a subsequent failure at the Los Guinchos power plant triggered the island-wide outage. Red Electrica said power had been restored to about 75% of affected customers by midmorning, roughly four and a half hours after the outage began, while the Canary Islands government said the island lost electricity at 6.42 am local time. Endesa confirmed that power service was restored at 10:26 a.m. after a fault at a power plant and the interruption of a high-voltage line, and the outage had affected 50,508 customers.
Endesa said, "From the very beginning," that generation and distribution technical teams worked to progressively restore the supply until full normalization of the service was achieved. The Canary Islands government activated the alert at 7:30 a.m. under the Canary Islands Civil Protection Territorial Emergency Plan (PLATECA), and Endesa reported that groups were brought back online until full recovery.
What Spain warned
Ángel Víctor Torres said the Government of Spain maintained direct communication with local authorities and the Government of the Canary Islands to monitor the situation, as the General Directorate of Emergencies activated alert across all of Palma’s territory under Plateca. Torres stated, "the Government of Spain maintains direct communication" with local authorities and the Government of the Canary Islands, and the alert aimed to monitor and coordinate actions until electricity supply recovery. The Government of the Canary Islands’ General Directorate of Emergencies reported that at 6:42 in the morning a complete fault in the electrical system produced the total interruption of the supply on La Palma.
Fernando Clavijo urged the population to exercise extreme caution, saying, "avoid unnecessary travel, do not cross flooded areas, reduce vehicle use, and follow the instructions of 112". Reporting also said no injuries had been reported, but incidents were linked to water accumulations as the island remained on maximum alert due to rainfall.