Playa del Carmen Hit by Another Blackout; More Than 20 Since Heat Season Began

Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo — Another power outage hit Playa del Carmen in the early hours of Friday, the latest of more than 20 blackouts that have affected hundreds of families since the heat season began in March.

The outage began shortly after midnight and lasted until about 4 a.m., cutting electricity to residents in the Misión de Las Flores, Xcacel and Paseos Sisal subdivisions, according to neighborhood reports.

The heat wave that has driven the outages has affected all municipalities of Quintana Roo. August has already seen seven blackouts, including Friday’s. Earlier outages occurred on Aug. 1, 3, 5, two on Aug. 10 and another on Aug. 11. The pattern began in March, with outages reported on March 20 and 22; in May on the 2nd, 7th, 12th and 20th; in June on the 7th, 10th, 12th, 19th and 27th; and in July on the 13th, 25th, 30th and 31st.

The increasing frequency of outages has intensified frustration, particularly among residents of the most affected neighborhoods. Friday’s blackout comes nearly two days after representatives from at least five subdivisions in the city’s northwest protested during Governor Mara Lezama Espinosa’s “La Voz del Pueblo” town hall meeting in Villas del Sol.

At the protest, residents demanded that the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) improve electrical infrastructure in the area and urged authorities to stop approving new private developments, such as supermarkets, to avoid overloading the power grid.

Following the demonstration, officials — including CFE regional manager Héctor Aguilar — heard the residents’ complaints and agreed to hold working sessions every 15 days to improve service while the utility works to activate new substations in the coming months to regulate supply.