Massive blackout hits Dominican Republic for the second time in three months

The Dominican Republic has briefly been hit by a country-wide blackout in the second such outage in the past three months, triggering concerns about the stability of the Caribbean nation’s power grid NewsMassive blackout hits Dominican Republic for the second time in three monthsThe Dominican Republic has briefly been hit by a country-wide blackout in the second such outage in the past three months, triggering concerns about the stability of the Caribbean nation’s power gridVia AP news wire Tuesday 24 February 2026 04:00 GMTBookmarkBookmark popoverRemoved from bookmarksClose popoverMassive blackout hits Dominican Republic for the second time in three monthsShow all 4Your support helps us to tell the storyRead moreSupport NowFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.Your support makes all the difference.Read more The Dominican Republic was briefly hit by a country-wide blackout Monday in the second such outage in the past three months, triggering concerns about the stability of the Caribbean nation's power grid.Monday's blackout snarled traffic, disrupted public transportation and forced some businesses to close as crews scrambled to restore power.The country’s main power plants abruptly stopped supplying energy before noon, causing all other plants to shut down, according to the state-owned Dominican Electricity Transmission Company. But by mid-afternoon, the system was operating at nearly 30% of its capacity, Energy Minister Joel Santos said."Essential services such as hospitals, drinking water systems, mass transit and airports are operating with their backup systems,” he said.Santos said that the failure was caused by a trip in a transmission line switch, which caused the system to go into protection mode.A massive blackout that hit the Dominican Republic last November was blamed on human error during line maintenance work.More aboutDominican RepublicSanto DomingoCaribbeanMost popularPopular videosBulletinRead next