SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AFP) — Large parts of the Dominican Republic, including the capital, were without electricity on Monday following a major fault in the power system four months after a nationwide blackout.

“A major failure occurred in the National Interconnected Electric System (SENI), affecting electricity services in a part of the country,” the state-owned Dominican Electricity Transmission Company (ETED) said.

An AFP journalist in the capital Santo Domingo confirmed that parts of the city were without power Monday morning.

ETED said it was working to progressively restore power.

In mid-November, a blackout plunged much of the Caribbean nation, including Santo Domingo and the tourist mecca of Punta Cana, into darkness for about five hours.

That outage caused transportation chaos, with massive traffic jams, and the metro service in Santo Domingo being suspended for hours.

Power outages are frequent in the Dominican Republic, where cuts last up to 10 hours.

Lack of maintenance, breakdowns and illegal connections are among the causes.