2010 Chile blackout

The 2010 Chile blackout was an electric power outage that affected most of Chile on March 14, 2010. It began at 8:44 pm (23:44 GMT) on Sunday and continued into the next day. The power was restored in a few hours in some areas, and by midnight in most areas, except in the Biobío Region.

The blackout was caused by a failure of a 500 kV transformer at a substation in southern Chile that is part of the Central Interconnected System (SIC). The affected transformer is located around 700 kilometres (430 mi) south of the capital, Santiago. The SIC serves about 93% of the country's population, from Taltal in the north to the Chiloé Island in the south, including Santiago. At one point Santiago was receiving only 8% of the electricity normally required.

The blackout interrupted a music concert being held to raise funds for the survivors of the earthquake that had devastated the country two weeks earlier. In addition, thousands of people had to be rescued from the Santiago Metro after 20 trains were immobilised and the telephone network was also affected. The fire brigade had to free several people trapped in elevators.

The blackout affected 90% of the population and electric service began to be restored after an hour. Around 98% of people affected had service restored by March 15, 2010. The blackout caused the share price of the Enersis mining group to fall by 1% to a three-month low, although loss of production was minimal there and at other mining companies in the country because of backup generators.

President Sebastián Piñera blamed the power failure on the recent earthquake and said the SIC would remain unstable for a week. Other officials stated that the outage was not directly related to the earthquake. The energy minister, Ricardo Raineri, said that the electric transmission grid remains in a fragile state and asked Chileans to restrict their use of electricity. Raineri stated that during the earthquake the "electricity network suffered various damages, be it in transformers, switches and others".

An investigation was started to determine if the failure was due to a lack of maintenance of the transformer. Piñera vowed to get the transformer repaired within 48 hours of the blackout and to get affected transmission lines checked and repaired within seven days.