Since Thursday, September 11, NV Elmar has been struggling with widespread system failures, leaving many prepaid electricity customers unable to top up their meters. Panic spread as residents feared being left without power, but the company assured the public that electricity would continue to be supplied until the technical problems were resolved.
By Friday morning, several key services remained offline, including Elmar’s website, e-Connect, CE Portal, and payment systems through local offices and Pay.aw. SmartUp Prepaid and EV ChargeUp transactions were also unavailable. Branch offices stayed open to assist customers with online payments, payment arrangements, and reconnections.
Later that day, Elmar confirmed that some systems had begun to recover. SmartUp Prepaid top-ups were once again possible at gas stations, and the CE Portal for certified installers was restored online. However, several core services remained inaccessible, and full restoration is still underway.
Observers speculated the simultaneous outages resembled a cyberattack, possibly ransomware, though Elmar has not confirmed this. The company stated it has strong backup systems in place and continues to restore applications step by step.
The situation has sparked debate about Aruba’s cybersecurity readiness, with calls for a central reporting point in the event that critical companies or utilities fall victim to cyberattacks. For now, Elmar maintains that the disruption is due to “technical issues” and is working to stabilize all services as quickly as possible.
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