BUENOS AIRES, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Argentine President Mauricio Macri asked for a thorough investigation into the massive power outage that plunged all of Argentina into darkness on Sunday.
"This morning, an electrical energy outage occurred in the entire country due to a failure in the coastal transportation system, the cause of which we cannot determine," Macri said.
"We are working to make sure everyone has power as soon as possible," he said on Twitter. "As the hours pass, service will be restored to all users."
Shortly before 4:00 p.m. local time (1900 GMT), 56 percent of Argentine users had power restored, according to authorities.
The Ministry of Energy said in a statement that the massive outage "occurred in the entire country and also affected Uruguay. The causes are being investigated and have not yet been determined."
Major Argentine energy companies Edesur and Edenor respectively said that the outage was caused by a massive failure in the electrical interconnected system.
Edenor added that normal service would take several hours to restore and it would be first restored in the western region of Cuyo and the southwestern region of Comahue.
Argentina's southernmost province of Tierra del Fuego was not affected since it is not connected to the national electrical interconnected system.
