MEXICO CITY — Mexico was hit by hours of power outages Tuesday evening due to high temperatures and temporary drops in electricity production.
The government’s National Energy Monitoring Center said the outages lasted a total of about five hours, although it was probably less for individual customers because it was a rolling outage spread across the country .
The center said the largest power outage affected about 5% of customers and lasted about four hours.
The larger power outage is partly due to an increase in electricity demand in the early evening, when many Mexicans return home and turn on televisions, fans and air conditioners.
Mexico has broken several temperature records this year, with about a third of the country expected to reach 113 degrees Fahrenheit (45 degrees Celsius) on Wednesday. Greater Mexico City, where about a sixth of the population lives, hit a high of 92 degrees (33.4 Celsius) on Tuesday.
Mexico City is located in a high mountain valley and it is usually cool at night, but that hasn’t happened as much this year.
Electricity production also fell unexpectedly for other reasons, including lower output from hydroelectric dams, which were affected by drought, and clouds affecting solar power.
The power outages have embarrassed President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who has made it a priority to strengthen the role of the state-owned electricity company, known as CFE, and reduce opportunities for electricity producers private.
Most of the public factories that López Obrador has prioritized are dirtier because they burn fuel produced in state refineries. The president has sought to limit private, cleaner electricity generation using natural gas or renewable energy.
ABC News
