He Electrical Cabinet has not yet concluded investigation about him national blackout from last Saturday. The minister of Energy and Mines, Joel Santosreported this Friday that the process is 65% complete, but warned that a large amount of technical evidence still needs to be analyzed before determining the causes and complete sequence of the failure.
Santos explained that the Failure Committee of the Coordinating Body of the National Interconnected Electrical System (OC-SENI) has already identified preliminary findings, although there is no official conclusion yet. The minister spoke accompanied by Andrés Astacio, superintendent of Electricity and president of the committee, and by Manuel López San Pablo, executive director of the OC-SENI.
The research team works with an unusual volume of data. According to Santos, the generating companies they delivered more than a million of technical records that are in the process of detailed analysis. “This information is in the processing and evaluation phase. It is a job that will take until next Friday and will allow for the construction of a comprehensive diagnosis,” he said.
The official announced that the preliminary report would be shared with population “in some two weeks”.
Santos insisted that the investigation is not limited to identifying the initial point of the breakdown. The objective is to rebuild the chain of events that occurred within the interconnected system and which culminated in blackout. He noted that any hasty conclusions could lead to incorrect interpretations, so he asked to wait for the final results.
Who makes up the committee that analyzes the electrical failure?
The minister reiterated that the Government will report with transparency as verifiable data exists. He also stated that the central purpose is to strengthen the securitythe reliability and resilience of the electrical system, with an improvement plan that reduces the possibility of a similar event being repeated.
The committee that analyzes the failure is made up of technicians from the Ministry of Energy and Minesthe Superintendence of Electricitythe Coordinating Body and the Dominican Electric Transmission Company. Distributors also participate in the group EdenorteEdesur and EDE Este, as well as private generators and the state plants Punta Catalina and Egehid.
He Metromain impact
The director of the Office for the Reorganization of Transport (Opret), Rafael Santosexplained why Santo Domingo Metro did not immediately activate its electricity generation system during the blackout that affected the service on Tuesday, and directly clarified the statement of former president Leonel Fernández, who assured on social networks that the institution has “40 megawatts” of backup that could have been turned on immediately.
“That is technically poorly expressed,” Santos said when responding to the former president’s publication. “There are not three units or 40 megawatts. It is a single emergency unit composed of 18 floors of 2.2 megawatts each one,” he pointed out.
Why didn’t the emergency system?
Santos explained that the Metro did not immediately activate this backup unit because the plants were in “deep maintenance“just when the electrical interruption.
As detailed, the institution had taken advantage of the decrease in cyclonic activity to intervene in the system, including the replacement of 10,000 gallons of fuel that had been stored for 11 years and had been damaged.
Changing batteries of all emergency plants.
“The situation surprised us by giving deep maintenance“Said Santos on the Hoy Mismo program. “The response was slower because we had to go lighting plant per floor with the battery available”.
