The Gibraltar Electricity Authority says it apologises to all customers affected for any inconvenience caused by today’s power outage.

The cause of this morning’s blackout, lasting just over an hour, was a “simple human error” by one of the GEA sub-contractors onsite.

A statement continued: “Unfortunately, an employee of the sub-contractor in question accidentally dropped a heavy instruction manual on a control panel in a manner that caused the instruments on the control panel to disconnect electrical power.

“This affected all auxiliary power to the generating sets that were operational at the time.

“Upon identification of the error, work commenced on the safe restoration of power supply to the whole of Gibraltar.

“An internal investigation has been initiated by the Gibraltar Electricity Authority. This investigation will establish how the accidental human error occurred in a manner that had such consequence. Additionally, it will recommend what measures should be put in place to ensure there is no future repetition of this particular problem.”