SANTO DOMINGO – Electricity vanished across the Dominican Republic on Monday morning after a catastrophic breakdown in the country’s electrical transmission system, government officials announced, marking the Caribbean nation’s second complete power failure in three months.
The widespread outage brought traffic to a standstill, crippled public transportation networks, and forced numerous businesses to close their doors while utility crews rushed to restore electrical service nationwide.
Energy and Mines Minister Joel Santos revealed during a news briefing that the electrical system collapsed around 10:50 a.m. due to a malfunctioning transmission line switch that activated protective shutdowns throughout the grid.
“From the very first moment, the established protocols for this situation were activated, with the goal of restoring the system as quickly as possible,” Santos told the press.
According to the government-owned Dominican Electricity Transmission Company, the nation’s primary power generation facilities unexpectedly reduced their output before noon, creating a cascade effect that shut down additional power plants across the system.
Santos reported that by the middle of the afternoon, electrical crews had managed to restore approximately 30% of the grid’s normal operating capacity.
Critical infrastructure including medical facilities, water treatment plants, public transportation systems, and airports continued operating through emergency backup power systems, Santos confirmed.
Electrical service interruptions occur frequently throughout the Caribbean island nation, which previously suffered a similar country-wide power failure in November.
