Chile’s power grid is recovering post-outage, affecting major copper mines. The outage, linked to a transmission line failure in northern Chile, plunged much of the country into darkness. By Wednesday, over 90% of power consumption was restored, although some areas still faced issues. Major mines began to restart operations, emphasizing the challenges faced during the outage.
On Wednesday morning, Chile’s power grid and major copper mines began to recover from a significant outage that affected the world’s leading copper producer. The outage was triggered by a failure in a transmission line in northern Chile on Tuesday afternoon, resulting in widespread darkness and the shutdown of electricity to crucial mining operations, thereby impacting global metal markets.
The National Electricity Coordinator (CEN) of Chile reported on Wednesday that over 90% of residential power consumption had been restored, although some cities continued to experience intermittent power issues. Carolina Toha, the Interior Minister, expressed concerns regarding the incident’s repercussions, noting failures in several safety systems that complicated efforts to restore power.
The outage has been linked to ISA Interchile, a subsidiary of Colombia’s ISA, owned by Ecopetrol. ISA Interchile stated it was examining the causes of the blackout, highlighting that malfunctions in electronic and software protection systems led to the disconnection of a high-voltage line, resulting in a widespread power grid failure.
Minister Toha reaffirmed that an official state of emergency and curfew imposed at 10 p.m. on Tuesday was lifted, with approximately 220,000 users remaining without power, down from a peak of eight million affected homes. Major copper mines started resuming operations, with Escondida, the world’s largest copper mine, expected to return to normal operations shortly.
A spokesperson for Anglo American confirmed that its Los Bronces and El Soldado mines, along with the Chagres smelter, were restoring operations, while Codelco, the top copper producer, mentioned that its divisions were gradually coming back online. Codelco noted that all divisions were affected and that contingency plans had been activated to mitigate the production impact.
In addition to the mining sector, Santiago’s subway system announced it would restart services across most lines and stations as operations normalized post-outage.
In summary, Chile’s power grid has been largely restored following a significant outage caused by a transmission line failure. Major copper mining operations are resuming, and citizens are gradually regaining electricity. The incident raises safety concerns, prompting further investigation into the technical failures involved. Overall, the recovery process is progressing, with officials focused on restoring full power and evaluating the impact on production.
Original Source: www.mining.com
