Panama power outage affects 375,000 customers after generator failure

A major power outage affected over 375,000 customers in Panama, including sectors in Panama City, Panama Oeste, and Colón, on the night of Saturday, September 12, 2026. The disruption was caused by the sudden exit of Generadora Gatún from the national interconnected system following an electrical discharge during a storm.

ETESA reported that the incident was an internal issue at a generation plant and not a failure of the transmission system. AES Panamá clarified that a visible flame seen at its terminal was a controlled gas flare used to manage pressure following the sudden loss of generation, rather than an uncontrolled fire.

Service was progressively restored within approximately 23 minutes through the activation of automatic protection systems. Following the outage, ENSA announced the full restoration of its commercial services and prepaid recharge systems. To mitigate the impact, ENSA distributed 69,000 free prepaid energy pins to customers at no cost.