Blackout hits sweltering Buenos Aires

A large swath of Buenos Aires went dark today, affecting some 700,000 residential and commercial users amid a fierce heat wave.

A residential fire in San Martin, Buenos Aires province knocked out a high-tension power line, triggering massive power outages in the north end of Argentina's capital and its northern suburbs, power distributor Edenor said.

The outage took down around 1,800MW, electricity regulator Enre said.

"Edenor regrets the accident that took place, particularly on a day like today that has registered unusual temperatures leading to peak electricity consumption," said Edenor, Argentina's largest electricity distributor in terms of clients and one of two that serve greater Buenos Aires.

Four hours after the initial blackout, supply had been restored to around half of the affected users. The blackout coincided with summer temperatures that reached a high of 40°C in the capital.

Of the total power disruption, 150MW affected areas under the concession of Edesur, the other distributor that operates in Buenos Aires.

Edenor is controlled by local firm Empresa de Energia del Cono Sur, while Edesur is controlled by Italy's Enel.

Argentina's federal government has direct control over the two distributors and has kept electricity rates largely frozen since 2019, leading to repeated warnings from the sector that required investments are falling short.

Center-right former president Mauricio Macri froze utility rates in early 2019 after a plan to gradually remove price subsidies from public utilities caused a political backlash.

Incumbent president Alberto Fernandez maintained the freeze when he came into office in December 2019 and then expanded it when the Covid-19 pandemic hit last year.

The government authorized an average 9pc increase in rates for Buenos Aires in May last year, far lower than distributors had sought considering Argentina had annual inflation of 53.8pc in 2019 and 36.1pc in 2020.

By Daniel Politi