# Massive electricity blackout



## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

Mega-Blackout in Southeast Mexico and the Yucatan Peninsula - The Yucatan Times

My power came back for about 20 minutes in the middle of the afternoon and then went back out until 7:30 pm local (Cancun) time. Which is who knows what time for anyone else. (Don't get me started on the time zones).

The cell phone network, including internet access via cell phone, seemed to stay up the whole time - thanks to fossil-fuel based generators no doubt.


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## chicois8 (Aug 8, 2009)

welcome to Mexico.......


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

eastwind said:


> Mega-Blackout in Southeast Mexico and the Yucatan Peninsula - The Yucatan Times
> 
> My power came back for about 20 minutes in the middle of the afternoon and then went back out until 7:30 pm local (Cancun) time. Which is who knows what time for anyone else. (Don't get me started on the time zones).
> 
> The cell phone network, including internet access via cell phone, seemed to stay up the whole time - thanks to fossil-fuel based generators no doubt.


I have been losing power one or more times a day for the past week or two. Sometimes it is off for a few hours, but usually just for a few minutes. Sometime there is just low voltage, maybe 70 or 80 volts, not enough to run anything, just enough to light up a light bulb dimly.


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## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

I'm aware power is not as reliable in Mexico as NoB, but it seemed to me this was an unusually widespread outage. In the 9 months I've been living in Cancun, I can only recall one other time it went off. I'm sure those of you who choose to live in the countryside put up with much spottier service.

I'm not an electrical engineer, but I know low voltage can destroy electronics in short order if you try to run them on it. Maybe voltage that low won't be a problem, because it's so far out of spec that the transformers won't even try to run on it.


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## travelingrae (Dec 9, 2016)

I followed the situation on Twitter (using my phone's data plan). There was a problem on a transmission line between Tabasco and Campeche and more than 1.4 million clients were affected in Yucatán, Campeche, and QR. Power was restored one city at a time, starting from the Tabasco/Campeche border and moving towards Mérida and Cancún. I lost power at 11:04, the exact moment that the problem was noted on the line and came back online around 12:30. I lost power again for 15 minutes around 4PM and then power fluctuated for bit around 8PM. I did my bit to destress the electric grid by turning off the AC.

I found that they did a great job of keeping everyone updated on their Twitter account and they were fast and efficient at getting power restored.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

eastwind said:


> I'm aware power is not as reliable in Mexico as NoB, but it seemed to me this was an unusually widespread outage. In the 9 months I've been living in Cancun, I can only recall one other time it went off. I'm sure those of you who choose to live in the countryside put up with much spottier service.
> 
> I'm not an electrical engineer, but I know low voltage can destroy electronics in short order if you try to run them on it. Maybe voltage that low won't be a problem, because it's so far out of spec that the transformers won't even try to run on it.


I am not exactly "in the countryside", but rather in the middle of Guadalajara. Power outages are really common. Sometimes I will go for months with no failures then have string of them like lately. The low voltage doesn't seem to hurt anything. Neither my computer nor the refri will run on it. Those are my only appliances except for lights. I don't try to use anything when the voltage is low, but it is a common enough occurrence that I have a volt meter always plugged into one socket to make it easy to check when there are problems.


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## ExpatEmigre (Nov 22, 2015)

FWIW, I've lived in PV for a year & haven't lost power once.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

I have lived inMexico 16 years and we lost power a whole lot more and for longer when we lived in California..


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## travelingrae (Dec 9, 2016)

I lived through the Ice Storm of '98 in Quebec. Entire power grid wiped out. No power for almost a full month...


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## horseshoe846 (Feb 8, 2017)

travelingrae said:


> I lived through the Ice Storm of '98 in Quebec. Entire power grid wiped out. No power for almost a full month...


In South Florida we were once without power for something like 15 days. The national guard was handing out ice and water. And that was a no-name storm (with associated tornadoes). FPL was over-whelmed and called in the Canadians to restore the lines. (After all Canadians do seem to have an affinity to South Florida) 

Here in Mexico the stormy season has just begun - mostly at night. We will lose our power perhaps two times a night. When I see the lightening I pull out the power cords for most of our electronics. We have fried at least two routers over the years...


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## travelingrae (Dec 9, 2016)

Try a month without power in the dead of winter. 

I've lived in Mexico a full year now and the only issues I've seen with power are due to home electrical systems not being built according to "code," not with the supply itself. This was my second major outage and the first one was planned for and resolved in half the time CFE said it would be.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

travelingrae said:


> Try a month without power in the dead of winter.
> 
> I've lived in Mexico a full year now and the only issues I've seen with power are due to home electrical systems not being built according to "code," not with the supply itself. This was my second major outage and the first one was planned for and resolved in half the time CFE said it would be.


Typical wiring that I have looked at in Mexico runs an entire house off two fuses or breakers, one for the water pump and one for everything else, all with 16 gauge wires. That was true in my house, a fairly large, 100 year old house in the center of Guadalajara. I recently finished rewiring the entire house with 12 gauge for the outlets and 14 gauge for the lights and about 10 circuits with their own breakers. I put in a ground, the old house had none, a master breaker switch, and two distribution boxes, one for the front half and another for the back half. I did all the wiring myself, something that would never be allowed in the US.


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## travelingrae (Dec 9, 2016)

TundraGreen said:


> Typical wiring that I have looked at in Mexico runs an entire house off two fuses or breakers, one for the water pump and one for everything else, all with 16 gauge wires. That was true in my house, a fairly large, 100 year old house in the center of Guadalajara. I recently finished rewiring the entire house with 12 gauge for the outlets and 14 gauge for the lights and about 10 circuits with their own breakers. I put in a ground, the old house had none, a master breaker switch, and two distribution boxes, one for the front half and another for the back half. I did all the wiring myself, something that would never be allowed in the US.


That was similar to what I saw in my new construction house in Mazatlán. It was such a mess. I know more about electricity than the average layperson and gave the landlord a lot of tips on what needed to be fixed and how for when he got the work redone (he successfully sued his builder, by the way, for the electrical and plumbing issues!). I especially loved that the studio suite attached to my house had a poorly wired suicide shower that, if adjusted too high, would trip a breaker in my house. I don't know how many times the short-term tenants would come banging on my door in the middle of the night covered in suds asking me to turn their water back on! :lol:


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