‘Cascade of failures’ causes nationwide blackout

The Dominican Republic has experienced a nationwide power cut which officials said was linked to a failure in the electricity transmission system.

At 13:23 local time (17:23 GMT), an issue at a substation caused a nationwide interruption to power services, the state-owned Dominican Electricity Transmission Company said, citing the country’s energy minister Joel Santos Echeverría.

Approximately 33% of the national power demand had been restored as of Tuesday evening, and authorities said they were working to restore full service as quickly as possible.

Home to around 11 million people, the Caribbean nation had been experiencing smaller blackouts in recent weeks, the AFP news agency reports.

Officials at the state-owned power company said generation units in two major power plants had shut down, causing “a cascade of failures” in other parts of the grid.

Local media reported the metro and cable car in the capital, Santo Domingo, had stopped working and people had to be evacuated during the national blackout on Tuesday.

There have also been reports of chaotic scenes on the country’s roads. Social media users reported power outages in various parts of the country, but electricity and internet were operational in some places, reports say.

Last month, Hurricane Melissa was blamed for four deaths in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, after the category five storm blasted through the region.

The Caribbean nation is a major tourist destination. Once ruled by Spain, the Dominican Republic shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, a former French colony.