2023-12-19 23:30:00
After the storm that hit the City of Buenos Aires and several areas of the province of Buenos Aires, which had gusts of more than 100 kilometers per hour and caused falling trees, flooded streets, blown-off roofs and even the destruction of a stage, More than a million people would have been left without electricity, according to what the Ministry of Energy of the Nation for the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires (AMBA) reported daily.
The use of the potential “would have” is not coincidental, but is due to the differences that exist between the information provided by the organization now directed by Eduardo Rodríguez Chirillo and that which appears on the Edesur and Edenor websites about the affected users. .
This is not a minor fact, since, There are large variations between the official data and those that appear on these sites of the two largest electricity distributors in Argentina that, together, serve more than 12 million people between the City of Buenos Aires and a large number of Buenos Aires districts.
For example, until yesterday, the update of the status of users without electricity affected by the storm detected by Energía in the AMBA, reached the 235,000 in the Edenor area and 73,000 in the Edesur area.
However, on the website of the distributor controlled by businessmen Daniel Vila, José Luis Manzano and Mauricio Filiberti, figuraban 70,428while in the company owned by the Italian group Enel it reached 61,753.
While the Government speaks of 320,000 users still without electricity, Edenor estimates that there are just over 71,000
Emergency measures
That is to say, the official map differs substantially from the reality shown by the operators, more than anything in the case of Edenor, where they assured iProfesional that the problem lies in the fact that their website was down and that, therefore, data could not be updated.
In fact, the Ministry of Energy clarified to iprofsional that the company had a problem with its server and the data was not updated. “That has already been resolved, and we from the organization were communicating the real numbers to inform the population,” added official sources.
There are cases, such as the Buenos Aires town of Del Viso, which has not had electricity supply since last Saturday, which also happens in General San Martín, General Rodríguez and Tres de Febreroamong other parties.
In this context, the public body in charge of controlling the operations of light distribution companies issued a statement to indicate the adoption of emergency measuressuch as the import of electrical energy from Brazil to compensate for the breakdown of a series of Electricity Generating Units (up to a maximum of 1,640 megawatts) and the coordination of emergency measures with the distributors (Edenor and Edesur).
“It is estimated that for the AMBA, according to information from the distributors, most of the service will be restored within 24 hours, while the rest will be in 48/72 hours,” it is clarified in the document in which it also The work of the Firefighters, Civil Defense crews and municipal workers from various localities who cleared the areas mainly affected by falling trees is praised.
In the case of Edesurwhich serves nearly 2.5 million customers in an area of 3,300 square kilometers in the south of the Capital and towns in the South of Greater Buenos Aires, the peak of users (homes and businesses) without supply was recorded at 5 p.m. last Sunday morning, with 450,000 customers without electricity service.
The company reported damage to 198 medium voltage cables that began to be recovered, especially in the most affected areas such as Quilmes, Berazategui, Florencio Varela and parts of Lomas de Zamora.
In the case of Edesur, Energy estimates that there are 73,000 customers without electricity and the distributor reports 61,000
Now, The distributor already reports having restored service to 95% of its customersaccording to an estimate by its executives, who also admitted that what remains to be done is “a craft job” of changing poles and pulling cables that, in some cases, will be delayed because there are still trees in the network, especially in the area more rural and open fields like San Vicente or Cañuelas.
Provide answers
Regarding Edenorthe official information from the company is that it is still 140,000 users remain without supply.
According to the company: “In all municipalities in the concession area we are working in a coordinated manner with local authorities to provide a response to all affected customers.”
The statement recalls that the wind and rain storm that broke out in the early hours of Sunday caused extensive damage to all types of property and to power lines.
Additionally, it mentions that “the adverse weather conditions have continued until yesterday, to which was added the southeast storm that especially impacted the riverside area.”
Likewise, it also highlights the work that the local teams of Firefighters and Civil Defense“since their work is essential to remove all the trees that obstruct public roads, which according to estimates that have circulated publicly, number 15,000 in the entire AMBA area.”
The operators’ technicians are carrying out tasks to restore the electricity supply in their coverage areas.
For Edenor technicians, this is an essential condition for the technical teams to access the facilities and proceed with their repair.
“All efforts are aimed at ensuring that customers recover supply within the next 48 hours at most,” the company promises in its document.
In the first hours, Edenor reported 131 medium voltage cables out of service and assured that they would be “normalized as the failure is detected.” Although on Sunday the company, which serves 3.3 million customers in the north of the Capital and the northern districts of the GBA, did not specify the number of affected users, in the sector there was talk of 780,000, due to the fall of the high voltage cable service, with localities more affected than others such as Ituzaingó, Merlo, Moreno, San Fernando, San Isidro, Tigre, Vicente López, Pilar, Martínez, José C Paz and San Miguel.
Energy emergency
The problems suffered by both companies occur days before the start of a rate reorganization process that will be carried out by the new libertarian government and that began with the intervention of the National Electricity Regulatory Entity (ENRE) and the National Gas Regulatory Entity (ENARGAS). ), as well as with the call for public hearings to analyze a schedule of increases in gas rates.
Also and through a Decree of Necessity and Urgency (DNU), President Javier Milei decreed the “energy emergency” which will allow it to work on the generation, transportation and distribution of electricity and also on the transportation of gas to advance in the delayed rate review process, to reduce the costly subsidy bill through an increase in electricity and gas rates.
President Javier Mieli established the “energy emergency” to reorganize the sector and tariff tables
According to a note from Infobae, the storm a year after a similar one that between December 9 and 11, 2022 left 570,000 users without electricity over the weekend and caused the head of the ENRE, Walter Martello, who had been 90 days in office, announced new sanctions on Edesur and Edenor, to which he had already imposed fines of $687 and 293 million respectively.
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