Blackout The "black box" that will let you know the causes of the failure left by the country in the dark

The
Questions about total failure are multiple. As
said the Secretary of Energy,

Gustavo Lopetegui

it is "the extraordinary and extraordinary chain of events that caused the total disconnection". Yesterday, at 7:06 am, the computers of the Argentine electrical interconnection system detected imbalances, after an overload occurred on a transmission line, and in milliseconds, they automatically disconnected the entire system to protect it. It should have been encapsulated in the Litoral region, where the fault was.

To find out what happened, two companies will play a key role: Transener, responsible for transporting energy generators to distributors, and Cammesa, which orders generators to distribute energy in ways that to balance demand and supply. . In both cases, the state holds a shareholding jointly with the private sector and is responsible for its administration. In Transener, the administration is united through the state-owned company Ieasa (ex-Enarsa) and Pampa Energía, whose chairman and shareholder is Marcelo Mindlin.

First, Transener will review his own "black box". That is, badyze the seconds to two seconds of what happened Sunday at dawn. The recorded information is downloaded on paper, printed and a report is prepared which is then the document that will be presented to Cammesa.

Cammesa, on the other hand, also has an account of what happened and will compare it to the Transener Report. Then he will decide if he raises a question with external badysts. As Juan Garade, secretary of the renewable energy and electricity market, explained, very few industry experts have the capacity and the knowledge to make this badysis so complex. , which must be supplemented by evaluations and simulations in very sophisticated mathematical models.

"In the next 24 hours, we will have the first results of the badysis, which is essentially the chronology of the events, then there will be a deepening that will last 15 days, where the technicians of Cammesa, Transener will work and we will incorporate independent external consultants, help us determine what happened, "Garade told reporters.

Between the badessment of responsibilities, it will be necessary to identify the machines that have failed and if the owners of such equipment or suppliers are responsible. "You have to identify responsibilities at the technical and physical levels," added Juan Luchillo, Undersecretary of the Electricity Market.

Subsequently, the regulator (ENRE) will receive Cammesa's final report and issue a public resolution setting out the applicable sanctions. "If the company recognized as responsible gives its consent, the process ends.It considers that the sanction applied is unfair, it has the right to appeal to the administrative or judicial headquarters," explained Carlos García Pereira, director of Transener, who said the sanction for the company would imply the loss of compensation and entry into a sanctions regime.

Higher costs for security

To avoid overloading the transmission line between the Yacyretá and Salto Grande hydroelectric power stations in Buenos Aires, the authorities have decided to replace the cheaper Brazilian hydropower generation with thermal generation for 15 days. . This period is the one that is missing for the work on a parallel transmission line, out of service, to be completed.

More precisely, it is the transmission tower 4.12, located on the Paraná River and visible from the Zarate-Brazo Largo bridge. Transener took 75 days to relocate the tower that was sinking because the flow of the Paraná River had undermined the foundations.

"He was taking advantage of hydropower resources because of the excess water in the Litoral region, both in Yacyretá and Salto Grande, and in Brazil, which was sending us 900 MV of electricity. Electricity under very favorable economic conditions for Argentina, the office had a very high level of transmission, while at the same time it lacked an element, as did the section where the tower is located. It is an advantage that, under conditions of great security for the system, this transmission should not have state, that is why we now reduce the tension.Within the two weeks we had left to complete the laying of the drivers it was decided to make a more reliable dispatch, "said Pereira.

As a result, Brazilian hydropower has been replaced at zero cost, but with a spring yield requirement of US $ 20-25 per megawatt hour (MW / h) for liquefied gas and fuels thermal generation. the cost of production for combined cycle machines is between 50 and 55 USD per MW / h. In total, US $ 3.6 million is saved in a system that costs US $ 9.5 billion annually, including fuel, operation, maintenance, transportation and production, indicated officials. 20% of this cost will be paid directly by large industrial consumers, the rest being absorbed by the state with more subsidies.

"It was an economy that we had achieved and we were going to lose, because the big users, who pay a price based on real costs, the increase would be transferred to them, and if they drop, they would also receive this benefit.If the cost increases, the state will face more subsidies, "said Luchillo, who admitted they thought the operation they had" was safe and reliable ", but what Yesterday happened to show that this is not the case and "that is why we need to take a step back and take restrictive measures".

Human intervention

Pereira said that "until we have 100% certainty, we never reject absolutely anything", about the cause of the failure that resulted in the extension of the blackout to the 39, the whole electrical system.

"In a probability score, we see it as a technical problem and not a computer attack or sabotage, because we have not found any evidence to say that it happened." but until we have a definite conclusion, audited, verified and discussed properly, we do not exclude any of the alternatives, "added Transener Executive.