Glitch shuts major plants, upscale sectors left without power

Santo Domingo.- The State Electric Utility Thursday reports that a power transformer’s failure has taken the national grid’s biggest power plants offline, which has led to a halt in service in upscale sectors not prone to interruptions.

The AES Andres natural gas-fired facility with 300 megawatt output went offline at 3:34am, as technicians were forced to shut down two of the five plants at Los Mina, generating only 20 of its total capacity of 85 MW each.

In a statement, the Utility said the Edemar power plants were also ordered to gradually switch fuels from natural gas to fuel oil # 6, to prevent it an overload of its units. “The gas terminal subsequently resumed operations with backup power.”

“The situation has increased the electrical system’s vulnerability, causing disruptions outside the normal programming of energy distribution, affecting 16 circuits of Edesur, 8 Edeeste and 12 Edenorte,” the CDEEE said.

It adds that as of 9am the Los Mina plants had increased output to as high as 74 MW, and the system supplied 76 percent of the demand.