Article content

(Bloomberg) — Chile is emerging from a power outage that left 8 million homes without electricity and shut off service to major copper mines in its worst such incident in at least 15 years.

Article content

Article content

Power was brought back to millions of households overnight, and 94% of clients now have supply, Undersecretary of the Interior Luis Cordero said early Wednesday. Most of those still affected are in the north of the country, where the theft of cables delayed the restoration of electricity to some clients in the Atacama region. 

Article content

Chile’s government shifted its attention to determining liabilities for the failure as life in one of Latin America’s richest economies got back to normal. Santiago’s subway system is working as normal again after the power cut shut down services and led to gridlock across the city on Tuesday. The administration lifted both the curfew and the state of emergency that it had decreed to avoid looting and disorder. 

“The government has the responsibility — not just the right — to make sure that laws are obeyed, to establish responsibilities and to enforce sanctions,” Interior Minister Carolina Toha said in televised remarks early Wednesday, adding that the government will support citizens who file formal complaints. “All the government institutions that have a role to play here will do so with much zeal, strength and speed.”

The power cut was triggered by a fault in transmission lines owned by ISA Interchile SA, a unit of Colombia’s Interconexion Electrica SA, which is 51% owned by Ecopetrol SA, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The situation was then exacerbated by other failures, including in an automated system that coordinates the grid and in a separate system designed to restore electricity, Energy Minister Diego Pardow said.

Article content

Article content

The government deployed the military overnight to maintain security, and 207 people were detained, Toha said. Three people who are electricity-dependent died during the power failure, and the government will determine whether or not their deaths can be directly attributed to the blackout, she said.

“It is intolerable that due to the irresponsibility of one or several companies the daily lives of millions of Chileans are affected,” President Gabriel Boric said in televised remarks Tuesday night. “This situation should have been regularized much earlier. We are going to make sure that those responsible for this situation have to respond.”

Copper Operations

All Codelco copper operations in Chile have begun to gradually resume operations after power supply was restored, said an official at the state-owned company. Electricity supplies have also resumed at Anglo American’s operations in Chile, with the company saying it’s normalizing processes.

While BHP confirmed overnight that its giant Escondida mine was shuttered during the outage, the company didn’t immediately provide an update on Wednesday.

Article content

Escondida’s operations remain affected, union boss Patricio Tapia said by text message on Wednesday. Production is limited, he said.

Chain Reaction

The area affected by the blackout extended from the Peruvian border in the north to the region of Los Lagos more than 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) south, according to the government’s emergency agency Senapred.

The electricity agency head Ernesto Hube said the power failure occurred between Vallenar and Coquimbo in the north, causing a chain reaction and a complete shutdown of the power grid. Toha ruled out sabotage.

As well as the metro, long-distance train services from Santiago to the south were disrupted on Tuesday. Buses were packed, and many people were forced to walk home. The capital’s airport activated its emergency systems, according to a post on X. 

Local television showed images of numerous car accidents as commuters navigated city streets without traffic lights. Toha called on the population not to drive.

The annual Viña Del Mar music festival, one of the biggest in Latin America, was also canceled on Tuesday.

—With assistance from Matthew Malinowski, Paul-Alain Hunt, Matthew Bristow and Jason Scott.

(Updates with comments from Carolina Toha and Diego Pardow starting in fourth paragraph, ownership of ISA Interchile in the fifth paragraph.)

Article content