There is a town in Córdoba that for the second time in history used
its own power generation
so that its neighbors and its industrial center had electricity in the midst of a gigantic blackout.
This Wednesday, half of the country was left without electricity and
Córdoba was one of the provinces affected almost entirely
.
And that was so because the small town of Ticino, located 193 kilometers southeast of the capital, has its own power plant that is powered by
peanut shells
.
June 16, 2019 was Sunday and while the whole country celebrated Father's Day without electricity,
in Ticino everything was normal
.
The economy of the small town of 3,000 inhabitants is linked to the production of peanuts by the company Lorenzati Ruetsch y Cía SA.
This firm built the Ticino Biomass Generation (GTB) plant that produces enough energy both for the firm's demand and for the houses and infrastructure of the entire town.
In a factory in the middle of agricultural-livestock fields, they collect the peanut shell and burn it in a boiler.
So they get energy.
Wilson Chaile is a mechanical engineer and is in charge of GTB's Generation area.
In a dialogue with
Clarín,
he affirmed that the cut that affected half the country this Wednesday
went unnoticed
by the residents of Ticino.
“We have power and we never cut it off because in addition to being connected to the national interconnected system regulated by Camesa, when the Córdoba Provincial Energy Company (Epec) goes out of service, we activate our own generation for the town and the industrial zone
that
is the firm. to which we provide energy in these cases”, specified the person in charge.
And he stressed: "At this moment, while a large part of the country does not have energy, we remain isolated in a
closed circuit
giving energy."
In “Creole”, the GTB engineer explained what the process is like: “We burn the
peanut husk
that is produced in the industrial zone at the Lorenzati firm.
The husk is burned in a boiler that produces enough energy to generate steam.
This steam moves a turbine that activates a generator that delivers the energy”.
In Ticino, life went on as normal during the power cut that a large part of the country suffered this Wednesday afternoon.
Fabio Brushini, one of the directors of the plant.
For 17 years he insisted on his creation to generate energy from peanut shells.
Jorge Fonsfria (75) is the only member of the family WhatsApp group who lives in Ticino.
The rest of the family is scattered throughout neighboring towns and other parts of Córdoba.
This Wednesday afternoon, Jorge once again
boasted to his relatives,
pointing out that he was the only one who had electricity and was watching television.
“Here, only 10 minutes were cut off and the generator began to run,” says Jorge, who retired a few years ago and settled in this town more than 27 years ago.
"Before, we had problems with power cuts until the GTB plant was built," said Fonsfria, who pointed out that since 2018 the life of the Ticinenses was transformed forever when the generator started up.
"Five years ago this plant began and it is supplying energy to the entire town and to the plant," he said.
Jorge told
Clarín
that on Wednesday afternoon he spoke with his son who lives in Hernando, a town located 50 kilometers from Ticino.
"I used it for a while because I had electricity and he didn't," says the neighbor with a laugh.
Cordova. Special
PS
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