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Record heat wave takes down Argentina power grid – Mayor declares ‘state of emergency’ in Buenos Aires
29
December, 2013
29
December 2013 (M24 Digital) – The Mayor of Buenos Aires Mauricio
Macri, declared on Saturday a state of “emergency” in the city of
Buenos Aires as a result of power outages and called the nation to
form a committee to “monitor the crisis” and work to solve the
problems.
In
a press conference, Macri announced that there will be day off for
the Buenos Aires public administration on Monday, which could be
extended to 2 and 3 January if the high temperatures and lack of
electricity continue. They had also convened the first meeting of the
committee for this Sunday at 10:00 in the Single Center for
Coordination and Control (CUCC) .
There
will be present the deputy chief of the City Government, María
Eugenia Vidal, and Cabinet Chief Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, but
especially Macri asked officials of the national government to assist
such as Security Minister Maria Cecilia Rodriguez, to “join forces
and find solutions for the people.”
“Given
the continued problems and the heat wave that will continue until
Tuesday, Macri declared the emergency in the City and said: “We
expect the national government to attend this Committee and its
protocols to solve the problem in the coming days.”
Accompanied
by many of his Cabinet, the mayor of Buenos Aires asked the national
government and the concessionaires “for transparency in the
information” about the cuts and remarked that “people feel
abandoned and unprotected.”
28
December 2013 (Buenos Aires Herald) – Planning Minister Julio De
Vido renewed his criticism of Edenor and Edesur companies urging
their board members to resolve the power outages affecting hundreds
of families in Argentina as a heat wave currently hitting the country
is expected to give no break at least till Wednesday 31 with
temperatures topping an average temperature of 36°C.
De
Vido made the statements after visiting the Atucha II nuclear energy
plant along with Cabinet Chief Jorge Capitanich.
“With
extraordinary temperatures over the past days, a heat wave beyond
comparison, companies have not been up to (Argentina's) industrial
development and growth,” the Planning and Public Services Minister
told reporters and warned sanctions will “aggravate” "minute
by minute" if electrical suppliers don’t restore the service
in the areas that have experienced power cuts over the past two
weeks, such us the neighborhoods of Caballito, Villa Crespo, Recoleta
and Mataderos in Buenso Aires City.
“They
have to face people. Sanctions will aggravate minute by minute if
they don’t do what they have to do and that is to assume their
role,” De Vido insisted and urged Edenor and Edesur leadership to
have “social responsibility.”
With
a record-breaking heat wave stifling the South American country over
the past two weeks, the minister pointed out the government will be
deciding on companies’ sanctions next week when cooler temperatures
are expected to give some relief to Argentineans.
23
December 2013 (Latino Daily News) – In the midst of a heat wave,
thousands of Argentines living in the capital’s metropolitan area
on Sunday are still without power, while demand for electricity keeps
growing and reaching peak levels, the Federal Planning Ministry said.
The
Argentine power grid set a new record for electricity demand on a
Saturday when the consumption level reached 20.605 megawatts, the
ministry said in a statement.
The
new record exceeds the old one set last week, when power demand
peaked at 20.287 MW.
The
electricity consumption level is directly related to the high
temperatures that have been registered all over the country for more
than 10 days and the high level of economic activity, the ministry
said.
Despite
everything, however, “the system is operating normally and has an
additional reserve of 4 megawatts,” the ministry said.
Complaints,
protests and street blockades staged because of the power shortages,
however, continued in some capital neighborhoods and in the
surrounding metropolitan area.
The
high temperatures which have been punishing central and northern
Argentina for a week - often exceeding 35 C (95 F) - are raising
electricity consumption in most homes as people try to beat the heat,
a situation that has resulted in significant blackouts, many of which
still have not been resolved. [more]
By
John Wills
18
December 2013
(bnamerica.com)
– High temperatures across Argentina coupled with greater
industrial development and improved living standards continued to
break power demand records and cause power outages.
After
breaking national grid records on Saturday and Sunday, power demand
reached 23,334MW on Monday (Dec 16) at 3:00pm, beating the previous
workday record of 22,552MW set on July 22, 2013, according to a
statement by the federal planning ministry.
On
Tuesday power demand broke the previous day's record reaching
23,433MW at 2:40pm.
The
ministry reiterated the grid was operating normally on Tuesday and
that there was at least 2,500MW of spare generation capacity,
however, press reported outages in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area
as a result of increased demand for air conditioning and ventilation.
In
a separate press conference, planning minister Julio De Vido denied
claims the outages were due to lack of investment and planning and
instead attributed them to irresponsible power distributors.
Given
a request by Argentine grid operator Cammesa amid the heat wave,
Uruguayan grid operator ADME said that power stations Batlle, Bonete,
Punta del Tigre, Palmar were run at full capacity while Salto Grande,
a 1.89GW binational hydro plant on the Argentina-Uruguay border, was
used to meet the remaining demand.
Power
from Uruguay's Punta del Tigre, APR A, B, C, and CTR plants was
exported to Argentina on Monday and Tuesday, according to ADME.
[more]
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