Isla Mujeres, Q.R. — Another power failure has hit the municipality of Isla Mujeres, this time on the mainland. On Friday, a large section of the continental area lost power around 1:30 p.m.
Authorities have since reported that power failure was due to underground line theft near the mangroves. According to Governor Mara Lezama, power was recorded out at 1:35 p.m. That outage lasted several hours while the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) crews worked to replace the stolen parts and restore service.
She said that sections of copper cable was stolen from an underground junction box that caused the area blackout. Restoration of service was slow due to the splice work required to repair the line.
“Friends, on Friday afternoon there was a power outage in part of the continental area of Isla Mujeres, at approximately 1:35 p.m. According to initial reports, the incident was caused by the theft of sections of copper cable from underground junction boxes located among the mangroves, which resulted in a failure in the sub-transmission line that supplies power to the area.”
She said they were in constant communication with the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), who had 97% of the power supply restored later that afternoon with the remaining 3% being normalized several hours later.
“The national CFE team worked with specialized materials and equipment due to the characteristics of the splice required to repair the transmission line,” she said.
On October 25, a sparking transformer left part of the island without electricity. That transformer blew due a short circuit. Islanders were left without power for several hours while CFE made the necessary repairs.
