Strong winds and thunderstorms damaged Morocco’s national high-voltage electricity transmission network on Wednesday, November 11, triggering widespread power outages across Casablanca and neighbouring areas, the Casablanca-Settat Regional Multiservice Company (SRM) confirmed.
In a statement issued Wednesday evening, the regional utility said the disruption began at precisely 4:48 p.m. following a technical failure affecting extra-high-voltage transmission lines operated by the National Office of Electricity and Drinking Water (ONEE).
The company attributed the failure to powerful wind gusts and thunderstorms sweeping across Casablanca-Settat, marking the first official confirmation of the cause of the extensive outage.
The fault interrupted electricity supplies to several substations managed by SRM Casablanca-Settat, which distribute power to residential, commercial and industrial districts across the economic capital.
Affected neighbourhoods included central Casablanca, Maârif, Al Fida, Aïn Chock, Ben M’Sik, Sbata, Sidi Othmane and Hay Hassani.
The disruption also extended into Nouaceur province, affecting Bouskoura, Oulad Azzouz and Dar Bouazza.
The outage struck during the late afternoon, disrupting traffic lights at major intersections and leaving residents and businesses without electricity as the city experienced severe weather.
The incident originated in ONEE’s national transmission network rather than the regional distribution infrastructure directly operated by SRM, according to the company’s statement.
Immediately after the fault occurred, SRM activated its emergency response procedures and mobilised technical teams in coordination with ONEE to restore electricity supplies.
The utility said engineers were carrying out switching operations across its medium-voltage network to limit the impact of the transmission failure and restore service where possible.
These operations allow electricity distributors to adjust supply routes within their networks while technicians address faults affecting upstream infrastructure.
SRM apologised to customers for the disruption, describing the technical failure as beyond its control and assuring residents that teams were fully mobilised to restore normal service as quickly as possible.
The statement did not specify how many customers were affected, whether electricity had been restored to all neighbourhoods or when full service was expected to resume.
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