For the Government, the true test will be when there are three consecutive days of extreme heat

After a day of extreme heat in much of the country, the Government considered that the electrical system passed the test, but it is not trusted.

Mario Cairella, Executive Vice President of the Wholesale Electricity Market Administration Company (Cammesa), expressed to Clarín that the Argentine Interconnection System (SADI) “passed this first test.” “The power outages that occurred in the wholesale market were quickly recovered,” he analyzed.

“We would have preferred not to have had any outages, because what happened this Thursday was not a major test, but it shows that the Argentine electrical system It is not as robust as it should be“concluded Cairella, who is in charge of the operation of the system.

The official was referring to the strong supply interruption that occurred in Rosario and the south of Santa Fe due to a problem in the transmission network, as well as the outages in the City and Greater Buenos Aires, originating in the distribution network.

Cairella seeks personal revenge. On Sunday, June 16, 2019 at 7 a.m., before dawn, the country went dark on Father’s Day for a blackout that affected even neighboring countries. In charge of Cammesa, he was on a trip through Canada, for which he was held responsible for the giant power outage. In mid-2024 he returned to public service and takes extreme precautions so that it does not happen again.

“The next important test will be when accumulate 3 days like today, with this extreme heat”, warns now.

Meanwhile, in the private sector, specialists think that “It is a miracle” that there are so “few” power outages in Buenos Aires compared to 2014, one of the worst recent years for the service, when there was still a long-standing rate freeze during Cristina Kirchner’s government.

“The quality of electrical service It is a problem throughout Latin America, especially in Colombia and Brazil, and not so much in Chile and Uruguay,” he told Clarion the consultant Paulo Farina.

Is it normal that when there are extreme weather conditions the electricity is massively cut off? this medium asked different specialists.

“In the case of Buenos Aires, the problem was the 20 years of freezing rates and not making substantive decisions. But in every place there are problems when something upsets the balance; For example, in Brazil we must be careful with flooding in Florianópolis; In Santiago de Chile, a heavy snowfall left thousands of users without service. The alteration happens when there is a high demand for many days in a row, which can also disable equipment,” said an expert in the sector.

According to data from the National Electricity Regulatory Entity (ENRE) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Edenor recently had 8.5 average hours of service outages per user between 2023 and 2024 without counting force majeure events and 23 counting them. ; while Edesur 17 and 26 hours, respectively.

“For reference, We are in double Chile, which is one of the best in the region, of 13 hours per year with force majeure, but just over half without force majeure. Colombia and Peru have an annual average of 32 hours, which is a little more than Argentina and Brazil is better than us, with 17 hours,” Farina summarized.