Cancun, Q.R. — A recent electrical blackout in a Cancun suburb was due to stolen cables. Cancun Mayor Ana Patricia Peralta said that the recent blackout in Kusamil was due to theft of electrical cable lines.
Thieves who made off with the lines Friday left the entire area in the dark. Copper-infused cable is often stolen for the metal inside, which is sold to scrap collectors.
The cable theft generated a large group of angry residents who were left without electricity. In response, residents took to blocking a road in protest of bad CFE service.
“In Kusamil, the blackout was due to a situation of theft of cables from some lines. That was what generated the problem, however, it was resolved,” she exlpained after CFE personnel arrived to replace the stolen lines.
Peralta said as soon as Cancun City Council learned of the power outage, authorities made contact with the CFE who carried out the work required to restore the electric service.
Peralta also said that the most common blackout problem, according to CFE personnel who met with her Tuesday, is transformer overload. Since the transformers burn, they need to be replaced.
“The CFE capacity to make the changes of transformers takes between four to six hours when there is an overload and since they could burn out, they make the changes,” she explained.
On Monday, State Secretary Cristina Torres Gómez, said the recent blackouts in the municipality of Solidaridad have been due to consumption. She says the density permits initially granted for home consumption have changed to commercial lines, which generates an overload due to the increase in demand.
“The conflict arises due to the alteration of the density permits originally granted for certain purposes, which have been modified to accommodate increasing business lines,” she explained.
