Endesa has done it again: last year it was Almuñécar that suffered a power cut on the big night; this year it was Salobreña’s turn.

On Sunday the 14th, with Salobreña’s paseo businesses packed to the gunwales, suddenly the lights went out… and stayed out, for six hours.

From 21.30h that evening, with dusk falling, until 02.45h, all the bars, restaurants and the like were pitched into darkness. One moment business owners were well on their way to seeing healthy cash registers, overflowing with much needed cash, and the next… nixt!

Shops closed, ice-cream parlours struggled to keep their goods from melting and restaurants, improvising with ‘romantic’ candles on the tables, saw their kitchens grind to a halt… and all on the biggest bank holiday of the summer.

Endesa denies that it has a problem and puts the blackout down to a momentary hiccup – something unfortunate and unforeseeable. Yet the fact is that each summer their infrastructure gives out during peak demand and local businesses lose the prime takings of the year.

And of course, this is not the first summer that Salobreña has suffered a blackout when it most hurts; it’s the fourth – not consecutive, but the fourth nevertheless.

The Mayor, María Eugenia Rufino, says that the township will lodge a formal complaint before the Ministerio de Industria against Endesa.

So what does Endesa say? Well, they claim the 6-hour blackout was an isolated affair, caused by a breakdown, but it was not because of maintenance laxity nor a reoccurring problem.

The problem was with HT cables from the Santa Isabel substation they say, and as soon as the problem was located, a team moved in and worked immediately towards its reparation.

(News: Salobrena, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)