After the storm that occurred on Monday, July 11, representatives of the UTE Board of Directors, the director Enrique Pées Voz, the General Manager, Javier San Cristobal and the Operations Manager, Luis García, announced measures for affected clients and reviewed the work of UTE .
At the moment it remains to restore the service to 2% of the affected clients, that is, there are 1,513 clients without services. It is expected that by this Saturday there will be 500 services to replace and on Monday they will all be operational.
UTE announced measures that are by protocol in the face of extraordinary weather events, its director Enrique Pées Voz stated that for the 3,750 customers who were without power for 72 consecutive hours, they are not charged for power, whether it is a fixed cost or what was consumed is deducted 10% cumulative. Reaching 100% if thirteen days go by without electricity.
Pées explained that “we didn’t have to go out and hire personnel, we didn’t have to go out and buy elements because we have everything we need. It has been said that UTE does not have sufficient elements to meet demands, as you will see, this is not the case”, he stated.
The general manager, Javier San Cristobal, commented on the work carried out by the crews, thanked and recognized everything that had been done. For his part, the Operations Manager, Luis García, said that he estimates the cost of equipment and other resources used for the emergency situation in the order of 3 million dollars.
Damage equivalent to 300 km of line
A high level of damage was confirmed in this network, estimating the equivalent of about 300 km of line were affected, either at the level of columns and poles, tensioning, measurement systems, etc. On the other hand, it was verified during that day that the number of fallen Medium Voltage poles was 220, in addition to 216 Low Voltage columns.
As a consequence of this climatic phenomenon, the electric power network suffered serious effects that determined the interruption of the service to 29,500 clients of that department. Paysandú was the most affected point in the country, although not the only one, reaching 38,000 customers without electricity.
The action protocol for these contingencies was immediately put into practice, which prioritizes the mitigation of risks derived from the fall of poles, columns and power lines and the evaluation of damages, while supporting essential services (OSE, Hospital de Guichón , ANCAP plant). In a first instance, it was found that there were at least 26 damaged Medium Voltage (MT) and Subtransmission lines in the area.
The most affected localities were Paysandú Ciudad, Tres Quintas, Porvenir, Casa Blanca, Piedras Coloradas, Orgoroso, Menafra, Paso de los Mellizos, Rolón, Sarandí de Navarro, Merinos, Morató, Piñera, Guichón, Constancia, Lorenzo, Geyres, Queguay, Paso de Carros, Chapicuy, Paso del Parque and Daymán.
On Thursday, 27 crews equipped with truck-cranes, trucks, backhoes worked in the field, employing 300 people in the task, for which resources had to be moved from other areas of the country, including CMD personnel, commercial personnel, controllers of contract, brigades, relays, maintenance table, supply and services, etc.
UTE thanks the affected customers for their understanding and reiterates its commitment to achieve, as soon as possible, the replacement of all the services still pending.
