Buenos Aires fears power outage during World Cup match

The Argentina capital of Buenos Aires fears a shortage of electricity due to the match of Argentina against The Netherlands upcoming Wednesday.

Because tens of thousands of Argentinians are turning on their tv set at the same time, this will cause a spike in the electricity demand. When this results in a electricity failure, thousands of soccer fans will not be able to watch the match.

The electricity demand of Buenos Aires shows an increase of 12 percent compared to the same period last year. Main cause for the increase of electricity usage are the unusual high temperatures for the time of the year. Also the economic growth leads to a higher power consumption.

At the beginning of the month the grid was down in large parts of the city for a short time. One of the neighborhouds hit was La Boca, the home of Maradonna’s football club, Boca Juniors.

Energy Crisis
The Argentinian government does not want to call it an energy crisis. The electricity companies however, complain that the electricity grid is unsufficient for the current demand of electricity.

Brazil
In neighboring Brazil measures have been taking to prevent a black out due to a spike demand during the World Cup.

Ivory Coast
Last Saturday, thousands of football fans in Ivory Coast attacked the office of the national energy company, after the power went out during a match of Ivory Coast.

Text in Dutch:

RTL