The power outage last Friday. Not the last expected in the hot season (Photo: Reuven Castro)
The 300,000 households that sat sweating in the dark last weekend, when they were cut off from the power system after failing to keep up with the load, want to know that their wet experience will not be repeated anytime soon. However, the exchange of accusations and verbal blows that have been taking place since then between the electric company, which produces the electricity, and the company Noga, which manages the electricity system, with each side blaming the other, indicate a weather forecast that we can expect this summer: hot and steamy even indoors.
The heated dispute between the sides reached the point where IEC CEO Meir Spiegler is asking the government to consider returning electricity management from Noga to the IEC. In front of him, Shaul Goldstein, CEO of Noga Electrical Systems Management, claims that the IEC is not functioning properly, its facilities are faulty or closed, and because of technical failures, critical data that can help its work is not transferred to it.
The citizens of Israel are less interested in who is right at the moment, but in the fact that the next time electricity consumption jumps, we will fall between the cracks.
Until a year and a half ago, the Israel Electric Corporation both created electricity and planned its supply, using a unit that operated within it, according to expected energy consumption and operation of electricity generation units. As part of the reform in the electricity sector, the unit became an independent government company, "Noga Electricity System Management". The extreme heat over the weekend, and the planned power outages that Venus had to do because of a lack of power, brought tensions between the two companies to the surface.
Shaul Goldstein, Noga's CEO, says Spiegler brings poison, and as a store and shouts into the discourse, in order to hide the failures of the electric company, and when he is not in the room, the cooperation between the companies goes smoothly. "There's an insane amount of work that an electric company doesn't do," he tells Walla.
"We have no green idea where solar power plants are scattered, basic data that an electric company needs to give us, in order to manage the supply, is not transferred. It's a serial failure that Spiegler covers up by shouting."
Shaul Glodstein, CEO of Noga: Let the Israel Electric Corporation manage? "Like letting a cat keep the cream" (Photo: Shai-Li Uziel)
Black Friday: "Nobody expected it to be so hot"
Goldstein explains what happened on Friday, when hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens were cut off from the electricity supply: "Before Friday, we held meetings to determine whether the reserves were sufficient, and based on the data that the electric company gave us, 1300 megabytes should have been enough, when the standard stands at 1100, and I took a reserve. Six months ago, I started examining the data they were transferring, because I understood that there was a problem with them. The computer system they were supposed to give us didn't provide a solution and we had to start working on it all over again.
"On Friday morning, when we saw that the power supply was low, we gave an order to increase production. People ask, why didn't we operate the Rotenberg and Eshkol stations? Because we're trying to avoid and operate coal-fired plants that harm the environment as much as possible, and I didn't feel there was a need. Then Friday afternoon came, the temperatures broke records, 43 degrees in Rishon LeZion for the first time in history, and we were surprised too."
How are you not prepared for such extreme weather?
"Because no one expected it to be this hot, and when the air warms up beyond a certain extent, it damages electricity production and that's what happened. Some of the stations are not built for such an extreme situation, because they are very old, and it is not in our hands. We turned to the Minister of Energy to ask the public to refrain from unnecessary use of electrical appliances, it took time and we saw a decline in consumption. The pumped migration station in Gilboa is also malfunctioning and two other storage stations in the north, one that should have started operating a month ago, is still being delayed and the other has not yet finished building."
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IEC crews are fixing a network malfunction. Noga's CEO thinks it is necessary to "break the monopoly of the electric companies" (Photo: Yossi Weiss, Israel Electric Corporation)
Coming soon: More power outages
That means we have to prepare for summer with power outages.
"I have no good news. We need to get permission from the authorities to carry out maintenance of the facilities, because like cars, power plants are required to be serviced regularly according to the manufacturer's instructions, and usually this is done between May and July."
Which is right now. Perhaps the February-April work should be brought forward so as not to get caught in such a fire without electricity.
"You're right, we're ahead of the work, but they can't be done in the rain. In any case, a thorough investigation into what happened over the weekend is now underway."
Perhaps we should shut down "Noga" and return the management of the system to the electric company. There is no need for this duplication, it just complicates the process.
"Electricity management includes the management of private, solar and fossil production stations, which the electric company has no interest in operating, it's like letting a cat keep the cream. The entire Western world is working with independent operating companies like us in order to break the monopoly of the electric companies."
Meir Spiegler. Demands that electricity management be returned to the Israel Electric Corporation (Photo: Reuven Castro)
"Shut down Venus"
The electric company claims that "Noga" is causing unnecessary damage. "Removing electricity management from the Israel Electric Corporation adds bureaucracy, regulation and clumsiness," Spiegler cries out, "for what, Master of the Universe? There has not been a single instance of such power outages, except in 2006, when consumption was beyond production capacity, and this was not the case last weekend. It would have been possible to generate enough electricity if they had prepared in advance. Why do you need this paperwork, coordination, and mishaps?"
Because you have a conflict of interest with the private producers and there is a fear that you will sabotage their activities.
"I have no interest in producing electricity, because we don't make a profit on it, and it involves a huge investment in repairing malfunctions and regular maintenance. We want private manufacturers to come in. Besides, there is no system that does not have conflicts of interest that can be overcome through legislation. It's like a CPA who receives money from the body he audits."
Noga claims that you do not transmit information and sabotage their ability to function.
"We don't have the information, but they are supposed to make decisions and brief us. We help them in every way, after all, they were part of us, but even their computer system, they can't operate. As far as they are concerned, I am selfish, because no one knows who Noga is, they only know the electric company and blame us for everything. I have a practical and selfish interest in making sure that they work properly.
"What happened on Friday is not malicious, but an incorrect assessment. I'm kind of an execution contractor. The electric company is not running flawlessly, there is more to be done and improved, but the reform has cut such a quantity of manpower that it is unable to take control of the tasks it needs to perform. I think that a significant revision should be made and the situation should be restored to its previous state, that is, we should consider returning management to the Israel Electric Corporation. Because when you reform, you have to stop and check its results and see if there are problems. And indeed there are."
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