Part of Club Bellevue in Alcudia, Mallorca

The Bellevue complex was affected by the power cuts. | Elena Ballestero

Andrew EdeAlcudia09/08/2024 16:56
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On Monday, urgent work was initiated to prevent further electricity outages in Alcudia. The work was due to have lasted a week, during which time there was a team of thirty technicians on 24-hour standby just in case. Cuts to services weren't expected because of the work, but as well as the standby team there was a mobile laboratory to locate faults and generators, a number of which seem to have appeared in any event.

The outage on Tuesday last week was caused by a breakdown in an underground cable. It affected a wide area of Puerto Alcudia, Endesa saying that 857 customers were left without power. I'd suggest that the number was higher, given that whole large residential buildings were knocked out. Depending on area, the outage was up to ten hours or more.

It wasn't the first time of course; not the first time for a very lengthy power cut in the height of summer when there's a heat wave. The assumption might be that the network was overloaded, but this doesn't necessarily seem to have been the reason. The hoteliers association, which was furious, has criticised what it says is "the negligence of public authorities". Endesa is one, but Alcudia town hall and the Balearic government's water resources department are others.

What do the blackouts have to do with that department? According to the hoteliers, it's because of delays to issuing licences for work to replace wiring. The water resources department is involved as there is a great deal of water below the surface. The tourist centre of Alcudia has a very high water table; it was built on Albufera.

So, the town hall, the hoteliers imply, has to take a share of the blame. Meanwhile, I understand that there were some angry people at the town hall last week, with Endesa clearly having copped for most of the flak. Mayor Fina Linares insisted: "We must get our act together. This cannot happen again." There were plenty of angry members of the public as well, including tourists. The police had to be called to Bellevue to deal with at least one confrontation with staff. But there was nothing that Bellevue or any other establishment could have done about the situation.

Lack of information, so often the source of frustration when events of this type occur, didn't help people's moods, but hotels didn't necessarily have firm information as to when power would be restored. Outages obviously cause huge problems, one being that lifts are out of action. Bellevue was apparently able to relocate people with reduced mobility, but this took a good deal of time.

The hoteliers say that power cuts affect the image of Alcudia as a tourist destination. Linares is right in saying that they can't happen again, but she and the town hall can't just deflect the problem - as was done with the rubbish strike in high summer two years ago - by pinning the blame on others.