DR1 Daily News - Dominican Republic

On 23 February 2026, the Dominican Republic suffered a major blackout. Last week, the Coordinating Organ for the National Interconnected Electricity System (SENI) released their report on just why this happened.

Apparently, there was a failure in one of the 138 kV (kilovolts) line between Hainamosa and Villa Duarte, both in East Santo Domingo at approximately 11am. The failure triggered variations in the frequency of the system and activated automatic protection mechanisms known as the Scheme for the Automatic Load Disconnection (EDAC). Then came the shut-down of some generating stations, which, in turn, contributed to a loss of frequency throughout the system.

At the time of the incident, the SENI was producing 2,836 megawatts, and supplying a demand of 2,667 megawatts, with a 6% of production in reserve.

The loss of the 60 hertz frequency was then magnified by the sudden shutdown of electricity from Punta Catalina 2, and this in turn caused the total collapse of the...