Tower 412: a key element that could have prevented the power outage

BETWEEN RÍOS.- At the end of the crossing, towards the north, the Justo José de Urquiza bridge, which connects the province of Buenos Aires to that of Entre Ríos, is Daniel's small pantry, selling everything , bread and cheese to fish bait After a horn, the owner leaves his premises and indicates the way to get to "La Torre", known in the area by the campsite that bears his name, located under the high voltage transmission tower 412.

From Sunday, this structure has gained notoriety after the blackout that left in the dark almost the entire country, except Tierra del Fuego and some other places. The responsibility did not concern the tower on an ad hoc basis, but its name appears in the preliminary reports of Cammesa – the state-owned company responsible for energy distribution – to explain the non-use of the Colonia Elía-Nueva Campana network.

In addition, the parallel transmission line, Colonia Elía-Belgrano, suffered a short circuit due to its overload and was also "unhooked". "This abnormal weakening of the transmission system has probably destabilized the Yacyretá and Salto Grande plants and their contribution has been lost (about 3,700 MW)," they told Cammesa. The problem should be encapsulated in this area, but due to an unknown error, all generators have been shut down to protect the interconnect system.

It turns out that the water has eaten the base where is the tower, on the banks of the river Paraná Guazú, then Transener, the company in charge of electric transport, decided to disbademble it and to go up there. a new one 100 meters behind. The work began on Thursday, April 18th, but the decision to carry out this project was made in 2015.

By far, eight technicians dismount the top of the 97-meter tower and defy the wind that runs along the river. It is the employees of Tel 3 Ingeniería, the company of the Perez Companc group, which executes the works for the transfer of the structure. Another group company was commissioned to build it 40 years ago with Techint. This is SADE, which was sold in 1999 in Skanska and was bought by Pecom in 2015.

The new tower 412, greater than 127 meters high, has already been badembled for a few days. There are still 10 days of work, that is to say when the 70 days given to the company to carry out the project are achieved. The two towers can be seen from the Highway 12 bridge, to the right, north, at kilometer 114. You can also see a third structure, which has a parallel transmission line.

According to the two meter sign that goes to the place where they work, the work "Modification of the structure of the tower 412 line 500 Kv 5CACE1" figure in the folder of the national public offer No. 27510 and has a cost. $ 53,788,901.13 or $ 1,693,299.

To get to the campsite "La Torre", closed for "work of high-voltage towers", the improved road crosses under the bridge of Urquiza, the second road to Entre Ríos after the Zárate-Brazo Largo, to observe two times right. Welcome Sign If you follow a long time, there is the Yacht Club area, a complex of cabins with access to the river to moor the boats. The whole area is set in order to go fishing.