Overview
- The outage began at 12:13 on January 18 with a total trip at the El Palmar thermal plant, initially cutting power to 15,610 customers.
- Technicians exited the zero state in 17 minutes, about 20% of users were reconnected within 30 minutes, and full normalization was reported around 15:13.
- High-wind and coastal alerts were active across the Canary Islands, and island emergency services coordinated with Endesa and national authorities during the response.
- Endesa says the cause is under investigation, while the island’s cabildo president cited information from the company indicating a destabilized generator pending confirmation.
- Authorities point to near-term resilience upgrades, including a Tenerife interconnection and a new Endesa substation scheduled to start operating in the first quarter.