Baja California Sur has recorded 77 power outages since summer began, according to monitoring by the state’s energy research center CERCA. The tally underscores a season of persistent grid strain that has affected homes, businesses and public services across the peninsula.
CERCA identified high humidity as a compounding factor during the period with the highest number of outages. The moisture intensified the heat index and placed additional stress on transmission infrastructure already pushed to seasonal limits. For most residents, the pattern is familiar: flickering lights, dead air conditioners and the scramble for flashlights and backup generators.
The summer outage count adds new detail to a problem officials warned about earlier this year. CFE, the federal power utility, has acknowledged that demand spikes and aging equipment combine to make the summer months particularly vulnerable. In Los Cabos and La Paz, some neighborhoods have reported multiple outages in a single night, leaving residents frustrated and wondering whether the grid will hold through the rest of the season.
The outages have not been limited to brief flickers. Some have lasted hours, forcing restaurants to discard perishables, hotels to fire up diesel generators and homeowners to rethink their cooling strategies. For businesses dependent on steady power, each outage is a direct hit to the bottom line. For households, it is a reminder that backup plans—solar panels, battery systems, even candles—are not luxuries in Baja Sur. They are part of the summer toolkit.
CERCA’s monitoring also suggests that the problem is not evenly distributed. Certain areas experience more frequent interruptions, often tied to older transformers or overloaded circuits. CFE has made incremental upgrades, including new transformer installations in Los Cabos, but the pace of infrastructure investment has not kept up with demand growth driven by tourism, development and population shifts.
The broader issue is one of capacity and climate. As summers grow hotter and the state’s economy expands, the grid is asked to do more with equipment that was sized for a smaller, cooler Baja. Humidity, which increases electrical resistance and reduces cooling efficiency in transformers, makes the situation worse. When the air feels like a wet towel, the grid feels it too.
For now, the 77-outage figure is a snapshot, not a final count. Summer is not over, and the forecast suggests more heat and humidity ahead. Residents are left to hope that the next outage is brief, the next transformer upgrade comes soon and that the state’s energy planners are finally reckoning with a problem that shows no sign of solving itself.
See more via El Sudcaliforniano.
