It is almost a classic of every summer. Rates frozen, or with increases well below inflation, suggest that electricity distribution will have problems when the temperature rises. Last summer, the first major blackout was in the Edenor area. It started earlier this year and affected more than 600,000 families. A few days later it was the turn of Edesur, which suffered interruptions for several days, all in high temperatures.
Former Energy Secretary Darío Martínez warned of power outages, especially in Buenos Aires, anticipating what would happen next. The current official who occupies that position, Flavia Royón, stated that -10 days ago- not “should we have generation problems”. But he failed to clarify the doubts generated by distribution companies, such as Edenor and Edesur. “There may be specific cuts. There are forecasts in case we have a peak in demand. There is a contingency plan.”
“We need to strengthen the Edenor and Edesur issue, they are strengthening the crews,” he said. During the past summer, there were several days with extended power outages, in line with very high demand.
The largest blackout in history, by number of people affected and by duration, It was February 1999, when a blackout left ten neighborhoods of Buenos Aires and around 600,000 people without electricity for 11 days. Edesur was unable to fully repair the damage, and another burst occurred while attempting to connect.
The duration of that blackout led to protests from neighbors, with bonfires and pots in the corners. And it caused losses of about a billion pesos.
At that time, some 150,000 users lived with temperatures above 30° no fridges or air conditioning or fans. And a good deal of them without water, as engines and water tanks don’t run without power.
The company was ordered to pay home users 70 million dollars plus costs of lawsuits for damages. At that time the convertibility between peso and dollar was in effect. The Spanish Endesa has decided to sell.
Of shorter duration, but with a greater number of people affected, a gigantic blackout occurred in November 2002: more than 13 million people were affected in the Capital, Buenos Aires and eight other provinces, which was the largest to date, in terms of the number of people simultaneously affected. , from the privatization of the service.
It was the beginning of a period (2003-2010) in which electricity consumption grew by 30%, but tariffs were not gradually adjusted. For this reason, families began to request electricity almost without limits, since the weight of bills on household spending was very low.
In the last weeks of 2010, there was also a cut of similar magnitude to that of 1999, albeit of shorter duration.
Before Edesur and Edenor, the company that provided the electricity distribution service was Segba, a state-owned company. With big prediction problems, Segba came to establish “scheduled cuts”, that these were long supply disruptions, but warned in advance for people to seek some shelter. It was the end of 1988. Many consider it one of the milestones that ended up sinking the popularity of the government of Raúl Alfonsín, already shaken by high inflation.
Between September 2013 and February 2014 there was another “record” cut. Edesur achieved an average of 45 hours per user and per semester, According to data from the Ministry of Economy. That gauge read 25 hours with Edenor.
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s efforts have had an average of 19.3 hours of cuts per user semester, according to data from the Ministry of Economy. Between 2015 and 2019, that average dropped to 14.3 hours. In 2016, the emergency increases were recorded and in the course of 2017-2018 the Integral Tariff Revision (RTI) was carried out, a mechanism indicated in the concession contracts. The increases have been significant.
In mid-2019 there were two unforgettable incidents. On Father’s Day, a Transener transmission line, the carrier of the system, went down. The whole country was left without electricity due to a fault that was fixed the same day. And, in the winter, Edelap experienced a crisis similar to the City Bell, but with longer repair times. The company pleaded guilty but also blamed Edesur for a link.
Source: Clarin
