‘Cascade of failures’ causes nationwide blackout

There was a nationwide power outage in the Dominican Republic, which officials said was linked to a fault in the electricity transmission system.

The state-owned Dominican Electricity Transmission Company said at 13:23 local time (17:23 GMT), citing the country’s energy minister Joel Santos Echeverría, that a problem at the substation had caused a nationwide outage of electric services.

About 33% of national electricity demand had been restored as of Tuesday evening, and officials said they were working to restore full service as quickly as possible.

The Caribbean nation, home to about 11 million people, has been experiencing smaller power outages in recent weeks, AFP news agency reported.

Officials at the state-owned power company said generation units at two major power plants had shut down, causing “a series of failures” in other parts of the grid.

Local media reported that the subway and cable car in the capital Santo Domingo stopped working on Tuesday during a national power outage and people had to be evacuated.

Chaotic scenes on the country’s roads were also reported. Social media users reported that there were power outages in various parts of the country, but electricity and internet were working in some places.

Last month, Hurricane Melissa was blamed for For four deaths in Haiti and the Dominican RepublicAfter a category 5 storm hit the region.

The Caribbean country is an important tourist destination. The Dominican Republic, once ruled by Spain, shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, a former French colony.