Chile plunged into darkness by power cut

[dipsydoodle]

A massive power failure has plunged quake-hit Chile into darkness, stretching 2,000km (1,250 miles) and affecting up to 90% of the population.

In Santiago thousands were evacuated from the Metro and the failure affected a benefit concert for quake victims.

Power went out at 2050 (2350 GMT) on Sunday, when a key transformer failed, and began to return after an hour.

[rabs]

1. It was 93 percent restored couple hours after midnight

in all parts of the country except for the BioBio region that was the epicenter of the huge earthquake. Many lines are still down in that area.

Energy Minister Ricardo Rainieri today announced more blackouts are expected in the next week.

The newly-inaugurated president, Pinera, today called on all Chilean to conserve electricity because of the instability of the national grid system.

Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has issued a similar call and his opponents have throughly bashed him for it (although in Venezuela's case it is a result of the severe drought).

But let a right-winger such as Pinera do the same and all is hunky-dory.

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Chile anecdote: Wife's mother is in Santiago, 79 years old. We called couple of days ago and ask how she was getting along what with all the daily aftershocks that are still rattling the capital. She said, "I keep dancing. Even though I don't feel like dancing."

Great sense of humor despite her fear !!

[dipsydoodle]

2. I'm just back

from a 3 day dance camp. Everyone should dance regardless of age. My compliments to your mother in law !

:hi:

[rabs]

3. Dancing

Perhaps I was not clear. The M.I.L. is "dancing" because of the aftershocks that shake the house where she lives.

A 3-day dance camp, eh? That's a lot of shaking the bones. :-)

[protocol rv]

4. Sorry, but you're wrong

In Venezuela's case, power supply is running low because the Chavez government ruined the existing system, and failed to build new plants.

[rabs]

5. In your own words

protocol rv (339 posts) Sun Mar-14-10 05:36 AM
Original message
Guri Dam Water Level
Reported at 13 meters above the collapse point. At the current rate, 15 cm per day, we have about 12 weeks left before lights out. I guess those prayers for rain do need to be asnwered, or we're toast, eh?


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Btw, I understand that two or three new plants will be coming online before the end of this year, which should help to alleviate power shortages if El Nino acts up again in coming years.

[Judi Lynn]

6. There must be a great explanation for that.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com.nyud.net:8090/_hXmry6_QPIg/SOuLeys75rI/AAAAAAAAABo/OO1nzfXtuRQ/s320/drunk_at_computer.jpg

[protocol rv]

7. There's hair in the electric power soup

This problem has taken a long time to evolve into a crisis. Neglecting maintenance as they have, the government has decreased the generation capacity of existing power plants. Unfortunately, the new plants they are installing are of a type of technology which requires very careful maintenance. They are also consuming diesel as the main fuel, which is very expensive - this diesel used to be exported, but now will be used for power generation and costs about $8 million USD per day once all these plants are running.

Furthermore, the dam levels are at critical stage now. I read in the newspaper the dam reservoir is shaped like a bowl, which means that, as the water level drops, the amount of water used to generate a given amount of electricity increases due to the reduced pressure of the water column, and the surface area of the reservoir also decreases. This leads to an ever increasing rate of drop in level per kwh generated. And today it's below 13 meters, with the rate speeding up gradually to beyond 15 cm per day. If you do the math, it seems those who claim we'll be in deep trouble by around the middle of May will be right.

Then there's the new powerplants. They claim to be bringing them in urgently, and that new plants will be hooked up before the system collapses. But there's a lot of wishful thinking going on. It's not that simple to buy, build, and hook up a power plant. This means that it's likely they will be delayed. And if they're delayed by just a few weeks, then the crisis point will be reached.

I know the pro-Chavez posters are very much fans of reality denial, but look at the facts, the drought is a known event, and nothing was done to either maintain properly the existing plants or build new plants until very late in the game. This is what is typical about this government, and this happens because at the top they're not interested in management and governance, they're interested in speech making, propaganda events, and running around in red shirts keeping their backers happy by passing out goodies in events they make sure are televised. But when it comes to the dirty work of making sure things are working properly, the power, the water, crime control, basic economic management, health care, fixing potholes, picking up garbage, or reforming our lousy penal code, or even the traffic code, this government is worthless.

[Wilms]

8. Do you cut and paste your linkless editorials?

Come up for air. There's more to even your life than your hatred of democratic process in VZ.