Central American electrical grid failure causes regional power outages

A major failure in the Central American Regional Electrical System (SER) triggered a regional power outage on Thursday, affecting Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. The Ente Operador Regional (EOR) declared a state of emergency to stabilize the grid after the incident caused automatic load-shedding mechanisms to activate due to low frequency.

In Guatemala, the Administrador del Mercado Mayorista (AMM) reported that the failure caused a disconnection between the Guatemalan and Mexican electrical grids, resulting in a loss of 435.66 MW. This impacted over 20 municipalities, including Guatemala City and Antigua. In Honduras, the outage affected various sectors, including the capital, Tegucigalpa, for approximately ninety minutes.

While the regional system has since stabilized, investigations into the exact cause are ongoing. Some officials suggested the disturbance might have originated outside of Honduras. Separately, representatives for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (Mipymes) in Honduras' Sula Valley reported that recent prolonged blackouts throughout September have already caused estimated losses of 30 million lempiras for the commercial sector.