UPDATE: Temporary Power Outages Strike Large Swaths Of Chile

27th Jul 2010 18:22

(Updates with additional detail and comments from Chile Energy Minister Ricardo Raineri and Eduardo Ricke, head of the dispatch center for the central SIC power grid, starting in fourth paragraph.) SANTIAGO (Dow Jones)--Chile's central SIC grid, which provides power to over 90% of the country's population, suffered widespread temporary power outages early Tuesday. Following a devastating earthquake in late February, which assailed central-southern Chile, the SIC grid has suffered power outages, including two massive blackouts: one in the immediate aftermath of the quake and the other several days later. Power supply was cut as Chile's main power-transmission company Transelec SA carried out maintenance work, the nation's Energy Minister Ricardo Raineri said. "The situation is unacceptable and an investigation into what happened will be started," he said. The power outage, which hit from the northern Atacama region to the southern Los Lagos region, occurred at 10:46 a.m. local time (1446 GMT), originating at the Polpaico substation, less than an hour north of the capital city Santiago. As a result of the outage, 1,900 megawatts of consumption, or nearly 30% of the SIC's total, were lost, Eduardo Ricke, head of the dispatch center for the SIC, said in a statement. Midday, almost 90% of power supply was restored, while the rest will be fixed gradually, Ricke added. State copper miner Corporacion Nacional del Cobre, or Codelco, reported short outages at some of its operations as a result of the system-wide blackout. Codelco's Ventanas refinery is operating normally, while its Salvador division suffered a 10-minute outage. The El Teniente division, located less than 100 kilometers (62 miles) southwest of Santiago, saw some of its processes shut down on the voltage variations seen on the SIC grid, a company official said. Other copper mines located on the SIC grid, such as Antofagasta PLC's (ANTO.LN) Los Pelambres mines, were operating normally, local media reported. -By Anthony Esposito, Dow Jones Newswires; 56-2-715-8929; [email protected] (Carolina Pica contributed to this report.) (END) Dow Jones Newswires July 27, 2010 13:22 ET (17:22 GMT)