MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile’s power supply “fragile” for the next six months

The energy sector in Chile is largely privatized

Chile’s new Energy Minister Ricardo Raineri said the country’s electricity supply may not normalize for another six months, following a blackout which hit more than 70% of the country late Sunday night.

Shortly before 9 p.m. local time Sunday, the lights went out from the Atacama region in the north to Puerto Montt in the south, affecting millions of Chileans.

The government quickly blamed the outage on a fault of a 500-kilowatt transformer in the central-south region of the country. Within several hours an estimated 98% of power had been restored.

Monday, Raineri emphasized the problem was not in energy production, but within the central network that carries electricity across the country.

The Sunday night blackout temporarily shut down some of the country’s infrastructure – from some mining production to metro services and cell-phone coverage. The government called for calm and patience while it worked to restore power and by Monday morning most, if not all power had come back online. No serious incidents were reported.

Raineri told local press, however, that another blackout could occur. ”It's possible, but for now we're asking everyone to help us out by using electricity moderately”.

According to the Global Energy Network Institute (GENI), Chile’s energy demands have been on the rise (with a growth averaging 7% annually since 1992). The institute attributes the growth to the increase in demand from the mining sector and to the growth of urban areas.

Monday, Senate Vice-president Jose Antonio Gomez said the Mining and Energy Commissions must evaluate alternatives so the entire country will not be affected by the failure of a single transformer.

“The country cannot be [at the mercy of] a transformer... In that sense, we must find a way to require alternative routes or have a replacement system more quickly” Gomez said. Suggestions have been made previously to diversify the source of power for the country

The power grid has been sensitive since an 8.8-magnitude earthquake hit the country in the early hours of Feb. 27, when a large part of the country plunged into darkness as a result. For more than a week following, many communities were left without power and consequently running water.

The energy sector in Chile is largely privatized; and is divided into four grids. The Central Interconnected System, where Sunday’s fault was triggered, accounts for nearly 70% of all power generation in the country and serves more than 90% of the population, according to GENI. As many as 36 companies are responsible for the distribution of the electricity.

Soon after the earthquake, the government (then under Michelle Bachelet) said the grid was left in a fragile state and could take significant time to recover.

By Eva Salinas – Santiago Times