Whole of Minorca blacked out

THE whole of the island of Minorca was blacked out yesterday morning between 9 and 10.32am.
The problem was an outage which interrupted the electricity supply, caused by an “accidental tripping” of a group of generators in the Colarsega power station in the port of Mahon. According to sources from Gesa, this event set off the shutting down of other groups of generators, after which the whole island was without electricity. Procedures for the connection and reinstating of the supply by areas immediatley swung into action, starting with the eastern area of Minorca, where after 30 minutes the supply was restored to the Verge del Toro hospital, Minorca airport and the port area. After that the supply was returned to the rest of the towns on Minorca until, at 10.32 am, the supply to the whole of the island had been restored.
Gesa said that the delay in restoring the supply had been caused by improvement and maintenance works on the undersea link between Majorca and Minorca. Companies, shops, businesses and private homes on Minorca were all affected by the power cut which caused, among other things, the failure of the traffic lights. Local police had to direct the traffic until the power was restored.