Power went out in the linked islands of Addu on Monday after an issue with an engine forced the shut down of the main powerhouse in the southern Maldivian city.
Addu, home to the largest residential population outside of Male’, has been affected for months by frequent power interruptions.
The Addu branch of the state utility service Fenaka Corporation confirmed the outage on Monday morning in a message they shared via their official Viber group.
Fenaka said the outage resulted from an issue with an engine at the city’s main powerhouse located in Hithadhoo.
“The powerhouse is down due to an issue with an engine. There is a disruption to electricity services in the linked islands of Addu,” reads the message.
The utility service said they were working on resolving the issue, but did not say when they expect to be able to restore power.
Addu, home to thousands of people, has been plagued by frequent power outages.
Fenaka installed a 1.8-megawatt generator set on February 21 to fix the power outages in the linked islands of the city. Another 1-megawatt generator set was sent on March 13, and a 1.8-megawatt generator on March 25.
But the city continues to be affected by power disruptions.
Fenaka has previously said it needs generators to create an additional 15 kilowatts of power to fuel the city.
Many rest their hopes in a project to build a powerhouse in Addu, the work on which has yet to start.