In his speech at the opening of the legislative sessions, President Alberto Fernández proclaimed that “Argentina is the energy the world needs”. A few hours later, a minute before four in the afternoon, that statement boomed: it caused a fire an unprecedented electrical accident in four years, what is left nearly 20 million people without electricity for between 3 and 4 hours.
electrical blackout lasted four hours and touched -at different times- a almost all over the country from the northeast to Santa Cruz, passing through Córdoba, Mendoza, Santa Fe and Buenos Aires. In some neighborhoods of Buenos Aires (Abasto, Once, for example), the light didn’t arrive around 9 in the evening.
A fire in a field, some pastures, caused the interruption of an electric transmission line, which connects Campana with General Rodríguez. They immediately went out of order three high voltage lines. They are the ones that connect General Rodriguez’s posts with the Littoral area. “As a result of a field fire,” he said Transener, the company dealing with the electric transport system to explain the damage.
The fall of the transmission lines practically paralyzed the country for almost four hours. Several thermal power plants have progressively “disconnected” from the system and limited the supply of electricity. Around five 40% of the electricity generation normally available in the country was out of order. An estimated 20 million people were without electricity at the time. A curiosity: the Government made the raises official Wednesday for customers of Edenor and Edesur ($400 in April, $800 from June) in Buenos Aires.
The switch disconnect is a preventive mechanism face the emergency. They leave the system out of fear that an accident will harm them.
Some specialists consulted asked for more information on the accident before expressing their opinion. “If a pasture fire shuts down half of the electricity grid, we are in a weak or unhealthy situation”they slipped, although they were waiting for more information about it.
Wednesday’s fragility reminded us of the blackout of Father’s Day 2019. There, a failure occurred at one point in the Transener grid, which caused the entire country to lose energy. Yesterday the Government was asked to investigate who may have started the fires.
Transener’s responsibility, a company shared by Pampa Energía (by Marcelo Mindlin) and the nation state he was not at the center of political accusations. However, the technical staff explained that Transener’s networks did not respond to contain the fire and started the whole process that led to the blackout. There is a lack of studies to determine the degree of compliance of the company in the concession of the transmission system. In 2019, one of his checks had failed, authorities determined.
The fires may have been intentional or the result of Wednesday’s high temperature.
The failure of the first voltage line caused 5% of electricity production to go out of circulation. In these cases, nuclear power plants such as tuna 1 are deactivated beforehand. It won’t work again until Fridaybecause the processes to restart this type of plant require 48 hours. Atucha 2 is out of service due to a technical problem.
The first three lines that went out of order caused some kind of Domino effect. Ten minutes later another line was interrupted which mainly affected Greater Buenos Aires and a part of the province of Buenos Aires.
At half past fourthe connection that goes from Mendoza to the Diamante River also fell and the entire Cuyo area collapsed, reaching as well Neuquen. The system was divided into North and South, with no lines connecting them. The supply was interrupted in other locations in Greater Buenos Aires, Patagonia and the province of Buenos Aires.
At 16:40 another line was released, reaching Rosario. This caused the collapse of the central region (Córdoba, Santa Fe) and took Reservoir out of the system. At the same time, the connection that failed was that of Santa Cruz, shutting down that province.
At that time, almost 40% of the country was already without electricity. There were an estimated 20 million homes. The average temperature was high in almost all of the country, with a thermal sensation that exceeded 30 degrees. Just when fans and air conditioners are most in demand.
At 17:00, one of the broken first lines was repairedbeing able to reconnect the north and south of the country. At 17:20 the Rosario bug has been fixedbeing able to incorporate a part of the town center into the connected network.
In any case – according to the specialists – Wednesday’s problem was not due to lack of generation. This is there was energy available. The problem would be more in the state of the lines, with three lines out of service due to a fire in the pasture.
“The massive power outage that occurred this afternoon was not caused by the Atucha I Nuclear Power Plant, but by faults in the interconnected system”, I clarify Nucleoeléctrica, the company that manages nuclear power plants. The government has promised it will “investigate” the causes.
It was the largest blackout in the country for the past 4 years. A similar incident occurred on Father’s Day 2019 when the whole country lost power. It took 14 hours to fully restore it.
On this occasion, the province of Buenos Aires normalized around 7 in the afternoon. Half an hour later, the electricity supply was restored in the center of the country and in Cuyo. By eight o’clock in the evening, everything was working out in the North-West as well and the end of the incident was declared.
The Government also expressed overnight that the Coast and the Northeast have not had any problems. But the first lines cut were precisely those that connected to the coast.
Source: Clarin
