Canary Islands government examines whether the October 3 total blackout in Lanzarote was avoidable

The Government of the Canary Islands is analysing the reports on the total blackout that left Lanzarote and La Graciosa without electricity on October 3 to determine whether it could have been avoided and whether there are responsibilities, the regional minister for Ecological Transition and Energy, Mariano Hernández Zapata, told Parliament on Tuesday, in remarks reported by Europa Press.

According to the minister, the incident began with a fault at the Mácher substation, which took part of the island's power system out of service, and the system then could not withstand the disturbance, ending in a total blackout. The outage also affected basic services such as desalination plants. Zapata said the government would not hesitate to take action if needed, but the regional executive has not yet identified specific responsibilities.

In the same debate, the minister put at seven the number of total blackouts recorded in La Palma since 2009 and noted that a second power circuit for that island, already planned, depends on an agreement between the island council and Red Eléctrica.

Developing story: the only source opened is the Europa Press report published by Libertad Digital. The parliamentary record or an official statement from the Government of the Canary Islands still needs to be checked, and the technical reports and who prepared them are not known.