Overview
- A transformer exploded and ignited a fire at an Edesur substation in Caballito early Friday, triggering a large outage that left tens of thousands of users without power.
- Firefighters, Defensa Civil, police and Edesur teams worked for hours to control the blaze, cool oil-filled equipment and secure the site with traffic cut in the immediate area.
- Edesur reported a peak outage of 103,760 users while the national regulator ENRE recorded 73,880 users without service, a discrepancy tied to different counting methods and timing.
- Technicians began network reconfiguration and alternative maneuvers during the day and have restored power progressively, though many customers in Caballito, Villa Crespo, Almagro and La Paternal remained affected into the evening.
- The incident exposed vulnerabilities in urban distribution infrastructure because damaged medium-voltage transformers and oil-filled units require specialized firefighting and technical checks before full service can return, and regulators will review the company response.