Massive power failure in Argentina: the reasons for a historic cut

The unprecedented power outage that affected for the first time all of Argentina (with the exception of Tierra del Fuego), Uruguay and parts of Paraguay, as early as 7:06 am morning, was also lacking. Among the causes of the incident, there is an energy overload in the transmission lines that connect the network to the Yacyretá and Salto Grande hydroelectric plants, which provide more energy to the country, as well as a technical failure of the protectors. , which should have encapsulated the Cut to the coastal area.

"The systems of Yacyretá and Salto Grande, which have been transmitted to the rest of the Argentine interconnection system (SADI), have been lacking." Yacyretá, with a power of 3,700 MW, is the main energy supplier of the country. of the network, imbalance the system as a whole, "explained the sector.

The electrical system is composed of three actors: production, transport and distribution. Carriers transport energy from generators to distributors – for example, Edenor and Edesur – and these companies distribute energy and issue light tickets. In this case, the failure would have been caused by the transport.

The company in charge of this stage is Transener, which belongs to it equally with the state – it bought the participation of Electroingeniería (of the businessman Gerardo Ferreyra), through Ieasa (ex- Enarsa) – and Pampa Energía. The company is the market leader in utilities for the transmission of very high voltage electrical energy.

In the beginning, the Energy Secretariat indicated that the incident could have been "orchestrated", given the coordination that existed between the courts. However, a few hours later "they deliberately dismissed to 99% the human intervention". "We are more focused on service recovery than on the study of causes, it is not the priority at the moment, it will take a few days to find out," they told the government.

Other sources consulted commented that what happened is "extremely unusual". "It never happened and it rarely happens on a Sunday at 7 am in the fall, with a demand of 12,000 MW, the peak being 25,000 or 26,000 MW in summer, which is less than half of the demand When the majority of the population is sleeping, it is very rare, "they said.

The main badumption of the badysts of the sector is that the coastal storms eliminated from the system the lines of Yacyretá and Salto Grande, in particular those of the center towards Colonia Elía, in Entre Ríos. At the same time, Transener is moving a transmission tower over the Paraná Guazú River, which is sinking as the course of the Paraná River has undermined the foundations. The system then worked with one less line. This line is one of those that carry energy from the factories of Yacyretá and Salto Grande to Buenos Aires.

According to Cammesa, "on Sunday 16 June at 07:06, there was a short circuit on the Colonia Elía – Belgrano 500 kV line, parallel to the Colonia Elía-Nuevo Campana line, which was out of service due to relocation.

"Simultaneously, and for reasons that are the subject of an investigation, the line Mercedes-Colonia Elía at 500 kV has been hung up, although the system is ready to resist the release of another 500 kV line, in which case two lines were disengaged simultaneously One of them was unavailable This abnormal weakening of the transmission network probably destabilized the Yacyretá and Salto Grande plants and their contribution was lost. (about 3,700 MW), "they said.

The generated overload, however, should have affected only this area, which represents a demand of 3000 MW. But something happened, which triggered all the projections of the system and, to protect it, the entire generation was extinguished.

"The system is ready to automatically wipe out a similar request to lost generation and restore balance almost instantly." It is currently examined whether automatic cuts, which affect all distribution companies and large users, have worked well. they disengaged other additional generators (including the Embalse nuclear power plant) and the system as a whole ended up with such a generation deficit that it led to collapse, "says the preliminary report of CAMMESA.

Uruguay, like Argentina, has experienced a total collapse of the electrical system. In Brazil, there was an over-frequency due to the disengagement of the converter installed in Garabí, in this country, but this had no consequences. Paraguay, meanwhile, suffered a cut of about 20 MW from the circuit powered by Yacyretá and replaced the energy produced by Itaipu. "It's the first time that recovery after the total collapse of SADI has been implemented, which takes three hours to restore the system," they reported in the sector.

In the Energy Secretariat, they indicated that it was the coastal area that had recovered the service, followed by the federal capital and Greater Buenos Aires (metropolitan area). The northwestern zone, with Jujuy and Salta in the lead, and the southern zone, are the ones that have encountered the most problems of restoration of electricity, because of a problem encountered in the reservoir of 39; Alicurá, Comahue, and El Chocón dam. in Neuquén.

At six o'clock in the afternoon, 89% of the total demand had already been restored, corresponding to 12,500 MW. Half an hour before being able to restart the machines of El Chocón dam, which could not start all day and made it work again, after the intervention of Transener, who had managed to obtain the North energy. In Cammesa, consider that at the end of the day, all demand will be restored.