Power outages in Cancún, Playa del Carmen affect 277,000 homes and businesses

August 8, 2024

Tourists on a beach in Cancún — The outages affected residents and visitors in Cancún and other areas of Quinana Roo. (Cuartoscuro)

A Wednesday afternoon power outage lasting more than two hours affected thousands of tourists and residents in Cancún, Playa del Carmen and other areas of Quintana Roo, according to the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE).

The power outage, which according to the CFE started at 4:13 pm local time, affected 277,052 power users in Cancún, Playa del Carmen and Isla Mujeres.

Local newspapers and social media users reported issues including traffic light failures, air conditioning malfunctions, tourist service disruptions and problems at hotels and shopping malls. The outages also affected services such as ATMs and mobile internet services.

According to a statement issued by the CFE on Wednesday evening, electricity services were gradually reinstated that same day starting at 4:48 pm. By 6:14 pm, electrical service was back to normal.

The CFE explained that weather damage to a high voltage line running from Valladolid to Nizuc caused the blackout.

However, newspaper La Jornada Maya and El Economista reported that in recent weeks, power outages have been recurring in Cancún and the Riviera Maya. Some business owners in Playa del Carmen told La Jornada Maya that they experienced another power outage on Monday, causing them considerable economic losses.

Power outages affected more than half of Mexico's territory in May — In May, a heat wave and subsequent increase in energy demand strained the national grid, causing blackouts in Quintana Roo and elsewhere. (Jorge Ortega/Cuartoscuro)

On June 21, another series of blackouts occurred in the Yucatán Peninsula. At that time, the National Energy Control Center (Cenace) reported that the operational reserve margin dropped to less than 6% due to the high demand for energy to power air conditioners in homes, businesses and other urban infrastructure.

The region, along with several other states, also experienced power outages during an early heat wave in May.

Sergio León, president of the Entrepreneurs for Quintana Roo Association, said at the time that the power outage caused losses amounting to 500 million pesos (US $23.6 million). The economic loss caused by Wednesday’s power outage is yet to be reported.

According to the report “Mexico and Electrical Deficits” published by the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO), the Yucatán Peninsula has a fragile electrical infrastructure with a weak interconnection compared to the rest of the country.

Currently, the installed capacity in operation amounts to 5,693.71 megawatts, with some 847 megawatts planned for construction.

With reports from La Jornada Maya and El Economista