Blackout affects 15 million people in Central America

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A major power blackout affected at least 15 million people for over 2 hours on Wednesday (7) in some Central American countries, notably Honduras and Nicaragua, officials said.

The blackout also left parts of El Salvador and Guatemala with no power. Costa Rica and Panama registered no issues, said a Regional Electricity Market Operator (EOR) official, which supplies power to countries in the region.

“That’s approximately 15 million people affected during this regional blackout,” said EOR executive director Rene Gonzalez.

Earlier in the day, the company had reported on Twitter that at 1 PM local time, a regional outage occurred that forced Central America’s electricity system to declare a “state of emergency.” An hour later, Guatemala and El Salvador had power restored in most of both countries, officials said. Later, power was restored in most of Honduras, said Luis Deras, head of the national electricity company ENEE.

Central America has a population of some 50 million spread over seven countries.