Heat causes massive blackout and the collapse of Buenos Aires city
A heat wave which reached 36 Celsius caused on Wednesday a massive blackout in Argentina’s capital with an estimated three million people suffering lack of power plus such emblematic sites as Government House (Casa Rosada), Congress and the posh district of Puerto Madero.
The collapse which extended to several Buenos Aires City neighbourhoods and southern areas of Greater Buenos Aires leading to heavy traffic jams in the main avenues, power cuts of traffic lights and suspension of train and subway lines' services, comes only a week after the capital collapsed under intense rain and flash floods.
Partial blackouts had been recurrent in the Argentine capital since the fierce storm of a week ago flooded some electricity generation plants, but this time the heat also knocked out 1.500 traffic lights, six subway lines and several urban train services.
Power company Edesur, currently under government intervention and which covers most of the areas affected said through a spokesperson that “it is a problem we are trying to determine to define with precision what happened and how to deal with it”.
Spokesperson Alejandra Martínez, stated that the cuts “were due to a high tension incident.” Besides, she anticipated that “the service will be normalized as hours go by”. However subway and urban trains’ offices reported there “is no estimated time for the resumption of services”.
“This year’s record consumption of 3.552 MW from last July 15 was broken this afternoon when it peaked 3.560 MW. The contingency is being solved and we are now concentrated on the focus of the problem” said Ms Martinez.
Buenos Aires media consulted experts on the reasons of the recurrent failures and most coincided that “we are consuming the last investments from the nineties. Since then the only thing have been patches and the government does not dare address the main and only problem which is charging the full power rates so that generating plants and distributors can again make the needed investments”.
Only a month ago Argentine Federal Planning minister Julio De Vido went on national television to say that the “electrical system was perfectly prepared to cope with the summer season” and discarded massive blackouts or brownouts.
De Vido added that “Edesur has been intervened to ensure the service and the Planning ministry and the Power Commission will not allow the deterioration of the service quality”.
But Buenos Aires residents’ challenges were not limited to the blackout. Secretary of Public Works Jose Lopez admitted problems with the supply of drinking water and peak consumption and called to look after the water.
“We are asking neighbours to look after the water” said Lopez confessing that production was down 7% on Tuesday and between 10% and 12% on Wednesday. “That is why we are asking people to save water and thus avoid major problems”.
Another stinking problem has been the accumulation of garbage because of industrial action from the city’s sanitary workers. Even when the conflict was lifted on Tuesday, tens of tons of garbage remain uncollected and fermenting with the heat in Buenos Aires streets.
“We have crews in the city spraying the bags and heaps with insecticides to kill bugs, flies and cockroaches and protect the health of neighbours and the city’s sanitation” said Diego Santelli responsible for Buenos Aires city Environment and Public Spaces office
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And the Argie trolls continue to tell us that the UK is screwed and that Argentina is paradise and that there exists a Shangri-la 300 miles east of their homeland.
''A brownout is an intentional drop in voltage in an electrical power supply system used for load reduction in an emergency. The reduction lasts for minutes or hours, as opposed to short-term voltage sag or dip. The term brownout comes from the dimming experienced by lighting when the voltage sags. A voltage reduction may be an effect of disruption of an electrical grid, or may occasionally be imposed in an effort to reduce load and prevent a blackout.''
(Source- Wkipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownout_%28electricity%29 )
This quote from the piece is enlightening
''the government does not dare address the main and only problem which is charging the full power rates so that generating plants and distributors can again make the needed investments”.
So the Argentine Gvt is subsidising electricity but appears to not have the cash to also invest in new infrastructure? A recipe for disaster to me. The elderly and infirm will suffer the worst here as lack of air conditioning during heat waves will kill.
Answer: Invest more money on the power generating and transmission capability, otherwise get used to it as it will happen again and with growing regularity.
“So the Argentine Gvt is subsidising electricity but appears to not have the cash to also invest in new infrastructure?”
Is the Arg Government actualy subsidising electricity or is it restricting what Edesur can charge?
No more needs to be said
”Is the Arg Government actually subsidising electricity or is it restricting what Edesur can charge?'
Some of both, ..subsidising electricity, yes, but not everyone; restricting what Edesur can charge,..yes, absolutely. I suspect the Govt. wants to nationalize Edesur. It's their MO,..drive a company into ruin and nationalize.
thats funny, i have light,heat,food.......ah, thats because i live in UK
another cuppa methinks!
Anyway, as an Irish guy living here for quite a while, I can tell you that there are serious problems with the subsidies and control in place by the national and local governments. The subsidies are generally paying for imported electricity, or gas or whatever.
The local providers are tethered and cannot charge more for the service they provide. This is preventing investment in new infrastructure. It's a way that the governments weaken confidence in the private sector so as to allow them to be taken back into the public sector. (Similar to YPF recently).
The primary objective of the price control is that it is another form of controlling the inflation. This is a key issue with Argentina as there is such huge debts to be paid, and the interest being paid is tied directly to inflation levels in the country. I'm sure that some of the new debt in Europe is structured in a similar way.
One can't agree that this is sustainable, but there is some wisdom in trying to control (fake) inflation until the debts are paid off (if ever)
So, there are shortages of water, electricity and/or gas depending ont he time of year and part of the country and people get used to it, and work around it where possible. This isn't a 1st world country, as much as it would like to be.
Proof please CFK mob! Thats a serious allegation
Thanks for clearing that up.
I do wonder, isn't state control of everything and having an incumbent leader what Communist countries do?
Is CFK trying to make Argentina be the Latam equivalent of North Korea?
Scary thoughts indeed...
God is on nobody's side, it's you who is on his side or not, and by reading your comments you (conqueror, aka typhoonbuffoon) show over and over which god you follow...the devil that looks like jimmy saville..so british (ugly with bad teeth).
Sussie... ????
The same goes for the water purification plants in Bs. As. city. The break down is expected by the population because this government has not made the investments necessary to maintain the public services, it has made a whole lot of it's cronies very rich from the subsidies!!!!!!
Nov 08th, 2012 - 05:18 pm
“This BA event was not caused by heat, it was sabotage.”
That is the stuidest comment I've read on here for quite a while!!!!!
Temperature goes up to 35ºC and the lights go out, no investment for 20 years=Lack of maintenance!!!!!!!
As far as I can tell from checking back, the current government is the only one that has made more investment in power infrastrucure in more than 30 years.
So why do you care about the well being of Argentines so much?
Thank you for compliment that mine is the “studiest” comment. I think you means studyest, meaning most informed.
Were you there?
It gets hot in BA in the summer Simon been there lately? 35 is very hot for mid spring.
I am not so sure that it's maintenance or investment as must as it is furl to generate electricity.
Nov 08th, 2012 - 05:37 pm
Yes I was, although what it has to do with you I don't know!!!!
I care about the well being of the Argentines because I am Argentine, I live in Argentina and don't pretend to be a Yank who supports Argentina from outside!
It is definitely a product of lack of maintenance in the transmission lines, there is going to be a major problem of generation later on in the summer due to lack of spring run-off, simply we are going to run out of water for the hidro electric dams on the Patagonian rivers!!!!!!
Your pervicacious devotion to CFK blinds you to the fact that things just are not so great as she makes out.
I can only sympathise for those having to suffer under her 'leadership'. 'Hell' and 'handcart' are just two words that spring to mind when thinking what she is doing.
Yet all the while, the CFK supporters on Mercopress blindly support and applaude her efforts, whilst not actually living in Argentina at all!
de Vido is the Federal Planning Minister, right?
“#15 Sounds about right to me. Either that or he's just too incompetent to deal with the city's infrastructure, take your pick”
@15
“Proof please CFK mob! Thats a serious allegation”
Wake up, your countries collapsing.
more investment.
Argentina would be in a much better position today.
But as long as they follow her, it will only get worse.
.
Not only is it very unsightly around the town, it’s twisted, sheathed, phase array is susceptible to soaking in the heat directly from the sun just at the time of maximum demand (because all the air-cons come on) raising the conductor temperatures further (due to more current flowing), increasing conductor resistance and reducing voltage before any human intervention ever gets to work.
Underspecified, overworked and a failure waiting to happen. I have had to use over-rated UPS devices on all my computers AND the router, just to prevent bricking everything. The wife would be most upset if that happened to her media-centre.
BsAs blew a main distribution unit near to its alternators a few months ago (it was shown on YouTube – biggest damn flash I have ever seen from a power company installation). That will become very common, very soon.
anyways,
“the collapse of Buenos Aires city” not long now, :) chin chin.
ps, all argies i am selling bulk torches including batteries on ebay, item n0. 247754970012, collection only and payment strictly in dollars, none of that peso rubbish we have enough toilet paper,and certainly no IOUs.
Let me see, a few hours ago a gang of bikers robbed millions in a London jewelry store, in the middle of the day and in the 2nd floor of a busy mall; the Tory paedophile storm is just beginning (ask Mr Camoron if he has the list);
Britain’s biggest bank(HSBC) run by drug dealers and so on.
Yes I am afraid that you are right this time Mr Beef, UK is screwed.
How 'bout them 'sploding transformers !!!
Any chance CFK and Macri can get together on some infrastructure spending in Bs As ????
Yeah, right ! LOL
Any chance you and Aqua Marina can get together back again in BC?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iULyLwvV-A
CFK might find it 'hot' in BA or Olivios, air conditioning or not... !!!
My secret identity is revealed. :-(
You're right about this storm, the rottenness and hypocrisy of our establishment has been comprehensively exposed, and even though I realisticly doubt Cameron is on the list himself, the anger at him and his party when this is all over will probably make the N8 protesters' feelings towards Cristina look like love by comparison =)
More rubbish - a list lifted off some crazy conspiracy website.
I can only speak for what I see and read in UYU. America already has privately owned power utilities and SHOULD be much further ahead, except for the 110V situation.
In UYU the nub of the problem is UTE, the state monopoly run by a bunch of directors lacking in intellect and ability. The latest wheeze, where they obtained a loan to upgrade existing facilities now looks set to fall-over due to them not doing due diligence on the intended contractor and then finding out they have not got a track record in the combined power field.
They are still pursuing wind power, the idiots.
To solve the supply problems to the consumers requires a fundamental rethink. Underground U/G cabling, although more expensive than the overhead system is vastly more reliable and does not need the routine replacement of the wooden and concrete poles used to support the existing system.
The poles are costly to UTE to replace but far more costly to the consumers who are without power for hours when the local transformers blow up. This has happened three times in my area and one small company went out of business because the supply spike wrecked their electronic equipment.
Even it they only make a start with U/G when they need to replace a branch would make sense. Eventually the whole system would get replaced.
UTE would also make savings with the reduction in head count that could be achieved, but I doubt that would ever happen given the ‘jobs for the boys’ syndrome that is so prevalent in this country. I would not mind if the ‘boys’ actually knew what an electric cable was – and I am not joking.
People in the USA who have this system and suffer the failures in supply and the brownouts that occur have one MAJOR advantage over the consumers in UYU. The USA pays peanuts for their electricity. It would not surprise me to learn that we pay more than anyone else in the world for a standard domestic supply, in fact I would put money on it.
You do not think 110 (120) is safer than 220? It runs cooler and less pressure.
Thank you for capitalism 101. As a retired director of a General Electric Company of the UK, I found it fascinating.
Now allow me to return the compliment with Power Electrics 101.
“You do not think 110 (120) is safer than 220? It runs cooler and less pressure.” Let us see!
The laws that operate in power electrics (for basic RESISTIVE circuits) are given here:
Volts (V) x Current (A) = Watts (Energy / Power).
Using a 2 kW fire (purely resistive) at 110 V the current is Watts/Volts + 2000/110 = 18.18 A
Guess what happens in a 230V circuit for the same load: 2000/230 = 8.69 A, a 52% drop in current flow.
Heat produced in a circuit due to carrying the current flowing in the circuit is I squared R, where I is the current in amps, R is the resistance in ohms of the conductor. Using the same cable section as would occur in my example removes the constant: R:
(110V) 18.18 x 18.18 = 330.5 (230V) 8.69 x 8.69 = 75.51
So the PROPORTION of heat in the 230 V example is only 22.8% of that made by the 110V system BUT THE FIRE STILL BURNS THE SAME!
The legacy of 110V being ‘safe’ when compared with 230V goes back to the very beginning of power supply to towns and villages in the US. The cables were copper conductors insulated in the most part by natural rubber. The results were all too predictable: rubber getting overheated literally chars and then fractures allowing consumer access to the conductors. No modern polymeric materials then of course. Being centre tapped transformers giving the 110V across the conductors meant that any conductor to earth circuit (when you touch a ‘wire’ and the ‘ground’) is only 55V, but it won’t help you.
You see, the thing that KILLS people is the AC current passing through the chest area and it requires very, very little. For young females and old people of both sexes 40mA is enough at 50 (UK) or 60 (US) cycles per SECOND to cause all the valves in the heart to try and operate at this frequency instead of the n
You see, the thing that KILLS people is the AC current passing through the chest area and it requires very, very little. For young females and old people of both sexes 40mA is enough at 50 (UK) or 60 (US) cycles per SECOND to cause all the valves in the heart to try and operate at this frequency instead of the normal heart rate of 65 / 75 beats per MINUTE. Result: the valves ‘open’ in real terms and the blood pressure collapses to the point of starving the brain, resulting in brain death.
So NO, 110V is not safer OR COOLER it is more of a problem in the modern world of high demand.
If you recall, I made the point about underground cablind right at the beggining.
Believe me, if one of you suppliers offers preferential rates to 230V customers there will be a rush to join.
And yes, I am a professional engineer (you call is State Enrolled or something like that) and was the technical director at a GEC company.
what are you? a fortune cookie?
Your post makes no sense:
1) “I was informed that houses get 240 to their panels.”
2) “Apparently everyone's homes would need to reconvert to 240.”
You see the conflict: either the supply is 240V (and no need to convert*) OR they are not and conversion BY YOUR POWER COMPANY would be needed.
If you have 240V at the board you could use it PROVIDING:
1) You had an earth leakage circuit breaker (ELCB) fitted to automatically cut the power off at 40mA when faults occurred;
2) Your appliances were capable of being set to 230 / 240 V. Modern equipment is quite often fitted with a device to allow this. If not you would need a 230 / 240 V to 110 V transformer or treat yourself (and the wife) to nice, new, efficient appliances. New appliances are MUCH cheaper to operate and will save you money;
3) Have your wiring checked just to make certain it has polymeric covering. Any wiring less than 20 YO will be so covered;
4) If you live in a rural area have an earth bond test done just to be sure that the earth circuit is good. If not, you have a problem at 110 V anyway. Re-bonding is not expensive.
Disclaimer: the above is true where the wiring is in good condition and is correctly connected. Also, any unusual problems such as loss of power that comes back and your neighbour was not affected YOU SHOULD HAVE THE WIRING CHECKED IMMEDIATELY EVEN THOUGH IT IS 110 V.
#15 I was reading this article with the intention of mentioning how crude and outright clinical the Argentine politicians can be. The turn out at the N8 must have being low enough to blow a fuse in macri's head, we all know too well that he can switch of any light of the city he wishes to make a point.
#16 correction ! the English people are trying to make Argentina sound like N Korea, we don't hear them say the same about new York blackouts.
#17 we are too busy enjoying Canada hunger the natives and 16 year old female kids go on an execution and mugging spree. www.torontosun.com/2012/11/05/alleged-gangster-and-two-teenage-girls-charged-in-home-invasion
#22 you are right macri already turned out the light of BS. As. National monuments once or twice to make his political point, and who is leading the N8 gay parade? Macri that's who.
#28 correction ! Excuse your ignorance but CFK doesn't run Bs. As. Because BS. As. Leader is macri the same corrupt man leading the N8 gay parade.
#31 proof of corruption by maric.
www.buenosairesherald.com/article/107111/obelisk-left-in-darkness-due-to-city-govts-conflict-with-edesur
#33 Maric doesn't need help because he is an inept.
#34 I doubt CFK ever talked about the british corporate fakland. In any case she might have mentioned Islands Malvinas Argentina.
#35 yes it's the only way BS. As. Can see as the english do.
#42 do you know how many hospitals, libraries, schools, and parliament buildings were built after ceaucescu died? No more then zero.
#43 I think California, new York as well as London will need them more then Buenos Aires, if you wanted to help people with dollars why start in BS. As. Unless you like being treated like dirt while you are trying to help?
#54 correction! You mean the total incompetence of maric BS. As. Mayor.
Pirate hunter were you in a Canadian jail titti boi or at a retreat in la campora?
I think you have missed the really important problems:
www.howstuffworks.com/california-power1.htm THREE pages
www.clearwater.org/news/dereg.html concise
articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/10/local/la-me-0910-power-outage-20110910 Sept 10, 2011
I think blacking out vast areas is a bit more than a non-issue.
Which state are you residing in, I bet it isn't one of the western states.
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