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 SENI.
Although all of the protection systems worked perfectly, the unexpected exit of Punta Catalina 2, was considered to be the tilting point.
Although this report was scheduled to be released on 11 March 2026, it had not been officially released and some of the print media obtained it from their sources.
Lessons learned
According to the Listin Diario, the analysis of the situation says that Punta Catalina needs to make some adjustments to their control systems as well as to the plant operational systems in order for this not to happen again. Energy expert Bernardo Castellanos attributes the situation to lack of adequate prevision.
Read more in Spanish:
Diario Libre
Listin Diario
Bernardo Castellanos
Diario Libre
16 March 2026