Power outage affects 1.3 million in 3 states

June 22, 2022

Mexican electricity workers. — The power outage occurred early Wednesday morning, just as citizens were heading out to school and work. File photo

With temperatures in the 30s across the region Wednesday, many Yucatán Peninsula residents had a tough morning after the power went out at approximately 8:32 a.m.

The outage affected 1.3 million residents living in the three states that comprise the peninsula: Yucatán, Quintana Roo and Campeche.

As people were on their way to work and school, complaints started rolling in on social media with posts about the loss of cell phone and internet service as well as electricity for homes and air conditioning.

The Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) said in response that early this morning six high-tension electricity lines went down because of an accident during routine maintenance that sent one injured worker to the local hospital. He was reported in stable condition.

According to CFE’s calculations, 62% of the region’s households were affected by the outage, including 700,000 residents of Yucatán’s capital city Mérida. Mérida Mayor Renán Barrera Concha reported to the newspaper Milenio that around 30% of the city’s power had been restored by mid-morning.

“We have been working in constant coordination with CFE to monitor the reestablishment of power,” Barrera said. “We believe that in a few more hours, we will be much closer to normal power levels again.”

CFE representative Laura Estrada Loría warned residents this morning that the process would take time. “Workers are currently trying to identify the causes [for the outage] for the quick re-establishment of service. Service will come back online gradually and CFE will work to uncover the causes of the outage in order to inform the public.”