In his speech at the opening of the legislative sessions, President Alberto Fernández proclaimed that "
Argentina is the energy that the world needs"
.
A few hours later, one minute before four in the afternoon, a boomerang came to that statement: a fire caused
an unprecedented electrical incident in four years,
which left
almost 20 million people without electricity for a period of between 3 and 4 hours.
The electrical blackout
lasted four hours
and touched -at different times-
almost the entire country:
from the northeast to Santa Cruz, passing through Córdoba, Mendoza, Santa Fe and Buenos Aires.
In some Buenos Aires neighborhoods (Abasto, Once, for example), the light had not reached around 9 at night.
A fire in a field, of some pastures,
caused the stoppage of an electrical transmission line, which connects Campana with General Rodríguez.
Immediately,
three high voltage lines went out of service.
They are the ones that link the General Rodriguez stations with the Litoral area.
"As a consequence of a field fire," said
Transener
r, the company that is in charge of the electrical transport system to explain the damage.
The fall of the transmission lines virtually paralyzed the country for almost four hours.
Several thermal power plants gradually "disconnected" from the system and restricted the electricity supply.
At about five o'clock,
40% of the normally available electricity generation in the country was out of service
.
An estimated 20 million people were without power at that time.
A curiosity: the Government
made official on Wednesday the increases for
Edenor and Edesur
customers
($400 in April, $800 since June) in Buenos Aires.
The disconnection of centrals is a
preventive mechanism
against an emergency.
They leave the system for fear that an incident will harm them.
Some specialists consulted asked for more information about the incident before giving their opinion.
"If a burning of pastures causes half of the electrical network to stop,
we are in a weak or unsound situation
," they slipped, although they were waiting for more information on the matter.
The fragility of Wednesday was reminiscent of the
2019 Father's Day blackout.
There, there was a failure at a point in the Transener network, which caused the entire country to lose power.
In the Government yesterday there was a request to investigate who could have started the fires.
The responsibility of Transener,
a company shared by Pampa Energía (of Marcelo Mindlin) and the national State
was not at the center of the political accusations.
However, technical staff explained that Transener's networks did not respond to contain the fire and began the entire process that led to the blackout.
Studies are lacking to determine the degree of compliance of the company in the concession of the transmission system.
In 2019, one of its checks had failed, authorities ruled.
The fires may have been intentional or the result of the high temperature on Wednesday.
The fall of the first voltage line caused 5% of electricity generation to go out of circulation
.
In these cases, nuclear power plants such as
Atucha 1
are turned off preventively.
It will not work again until Friday
, because the processes to restart that class of plants take 48 hours.
Atucha 2 is out of service due to a technical problem.
The first three lines that came online caused a kind of
domino effect
.
Ten minutes later, another line was disconnected that mainly affected Greater Buenos Aires and a part of the province of Buenos Aires.
At half past four
, the connection that goes from Mendoza to the Diamante River also fell
and the entire Cuyo area collapsed, also reaching
Neuquén
.
The system was divided into North and South, without lines connecting them between them
.
The supply was cut in other places in Greater Buenos Aires, Patagonia and the province of Buenos Aires.
At 4:40 p.m., another line was released, which reaches Rosario.
This caused the Central region (Córdoba, Santa Fe) to collapse and
took Embalse out of the system.
At that same time, the connection that failed was that of Santa Cruz, turning off that province.
At that time, almost 40% of the country was already without electricity.
It is estimated that there were about 20 million homes.
The average temperature was high in almost the entire country, with a thermal sensation that exceeded 30 degrees.
Just when fans and air conditioners are most needed.
At 5:00 p.m., one of the first lines that failed was fixed
, being able to reconnect the north and south of the country.
At 5:20 p.m., the Rosario fault was corrected
, making it possible to incorporate a part of the center of the country into the connected network.
In any case -according to specialists-, the problem on Wednesday was not due to a lack of generation.
That is, there
was energy available.
The problem would be more in the state of the lines, with three lines that are out of service due to a pasture fire.
"The massive interruption of electricity supply that occurred this afternoon was not caused by the Atucha I Nuclear Power Plant, but by
failures in the interconnected system
," said
Nucleoeléctrica, the company that operates the nuclear power plants
.
The Government promised that it will "investigate" the causes.
It was the biggest blackout in the country in the last 4 years.
A similar incident took place during Father's Day 2019, when the entire country lost power.
It took 14 hours to fully restore it.
On this occasion, the province of Buenos Aires normalized around 7 in the afternoon.
Half an hour later, the electricity supply was recovered in the center of the country and Cuyo.
At eight o'clock at night, in the northwest, everything was also working and the end of the incident was declared.
The Government also expressed at night that the Coast and the Northeast had no problems.
But the first lines that were cut were just the ones that connected with the Litoral.
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