A fire in pastures generated this Wednesday a massive power outage in Argentina, which affects half the country.
The problems began after 3:40 p.m. and the demand curve registered by CAMMESA was clear: three abrupt falls led to demand being cut in half, just when the temperature was warmer.
The Wholesale Electricity Market Administration Company Sociedad Anónima (CAMMESA) has been operating the Argentine Interconnection System since 1992.
As part of the information provided to users, the company periodically displays the demand and generation curve for electricity minute by minute.
This Wednesday, with the first inconveniences, the company's website was down.
But then it resumed its operation.
And with it, the violent falls in the demand and electricity generation curves were exposed.
National electricity demand was well above that experienced on Tuesday and even higher than what happened last week.
However, at the time the cuts began on the chart (around 3:45 p.m.), both demand and today's temperature were already comparable to yesterday's.
Then came the first fall.
The maximum demand on Wednesday had already passed, which stood at 26,847 megawatts at 3:05 p.m., with more than 36 degrees of temperature (average for GBA and Litoral, according to CAMMESA).
Likewise, far from the historical record for a business day: 28,283 MW on December 6 at 2:43 p.m.
Just at 4:00 p.m. the first drop was observed: between 3:50 p.m. and 4:00 p.m., the demand went from 26,570 MW to 25,464 MW.
It stabilized at that level for 10 minutes.
At 4:10 p.m. the second cut in demand arrived, even more abrupt.
The electricity generation curve according to CAMMESA.
The blackout, reflected in an eloquent graphic.
In just five minutes the curve collapsed to 23,567 MW.
After a brief rebound that brought demand to 24,763 MW at 4:30 p.m., the collapse occurred at the national level.
At 4:35 p.m., the demand was already at 16,319 MW.
Ten minutes later, it was still sinking: 15,025 MW.
The
floor
was registered at 5:05 p.m.:
14,800 MW
, just over half of the maximum demand of two hours earlier.
Another graphic was even more eloquent.
In the power generation curve, a region painted in yellow can be distinguished.
Corresponds to nuclear source energy.
After 4:30 p.m., with the disconnection of Atucha, that region disappears from the graph.
Strong drops are also evident in the electrical energy that comes from thermal (orange) and hydroelectric (blue) sources.
Electricity generation from renewable sources was also reduced.
By then, in the midst of transportation problems during rush hour, official sources were trying to explain the massive blackout in Argentina.
And they promised that the supply would gradually begin to be restored.
Blackout: what do they say happened
At 6:25 p.m., sources from the electricity industry assured that technical personnel were already working to reconnect the Atucha I Nuclear Power Plant to the integrated system.
Although at first the version had circulated that this plant had been responsible for the massive power outage, the Nucleoeléctrica company detached it from the damage and spoke of "failures in the interconnected system."
A fire disturbed a 500 kw high voltage line that connects Campana with Gral. Rodríguez.
A fire leaves half of Argentina without electricity.
A while before, before the general confusion, official sources had given an explanation in
off
.
They detailed that it all started with a fire that "disturbed a 500 KW high voltage line that connects Campana and General Rodríguez."
As a preventive measure, they continued their exposure, they were "turning off what cannot be sustained."
In other words, the operation of some plants was stopped for security reasons.
"The system was split in half," they acknowledged about the supply in the central region of the country, which includes Santa Fe, Córdoba, Cuyo and the south of the NOA.
In Mendoza, for example, the interruption was total.
In the same way, the provision of electrical energy in the south and northeast was "regulated", an area that integrates, among other provinces, Buenos Aires.
DB
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Blackout in the City, Greater Buenos Aires and several provinces: a fire unleashed chaos
