Thousands of users suffered power outages in Buenos Aires and its surroundings on Friday in the hottest day of the last 65 years and three days after a major blackout left 700,000 users in the dark and without air conditioning.
Some 79,400 users in neighborhoods of the capital and nearby municipalities where the Edenor and Edesur concessionaires operate were without supply at 5:00 p.m. (2000 GMT), when the temperature climbed to 40 degrees Celsius, reported the National Electricity Regulatory Entity (ENRE). ) in his web page.
An hour earlier the thermometer had reached 41.5 degrees, the highest temperature since 1957, when it reached 43.3 degrees.
But the media reported a greater number of people affected by the failure of which the companies have not provided details.
In social networks, citizens from different neighborhoods complained early in the day about not having power. At that time, the ENRE reported that the affected users – family homes, shops or companies – amounted to some 10,000.
On Tuesday, when the heat tightened and a consumption record of 27,234 megawatts (MW) was recorded, a power outage affected more than 700,000 users. Edenor reported that the blackout was due to the outage of a high voltage line due to a fire that occurred in a house in a municipality on the outskirts of Buenos Aires that ended up causing problems in “generating machines” of a power plant. As the hours passed, the service was restored in several areas.
The ENRE has asked the company for more information in this regard as it is not satisfied with its explanation.
The government on Thursday asked industries to reduce their production and arranged for public employees to work from home that day and on Friday to reduce electricity consumption. The Executive argued that the increase in energy demand was due to the “economic reactivation” and the high temperatures recorded in the southern summer “due to the direct incidence of the La Niña phenomenon, which affects a large part of South America.”
The national electricity demand has exceeded 27,000 megawatts several times in recent days.
Power outages are recurrent in Argentina when electricity consumption skyrockets due to high temperatures. The concessionaires are questioned for not making the necessary investments, but the companies allege that the failure to update rates due to the government’s decision in an inflationary context prevents them from investing to guarantee an adequate supply.
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