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dam-l LS: Solution to Electricity Crisis on the Horizon
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Date: May 3, 1999
Subject: Solution to Electricity Crisis on the Horizon
Subject: El Mercurio, La Tercera
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SOLUTIONS TO ELECTRICITY CRISIS
ON THE HORIZON
Nature and a little political pressure combined this weekend
to give reason for optimism that Chile's festering energy
crisis may soon see a solution.
Heavy rains in southern Region VIII all day Saturday and
Sunday helped raise levels in the Laja reservoir, thus
allowing the continued operation of national power generator
Endesa's Antuco, El Toro and El Abanico generators. Until
the rains, all three generators were expected to have been
pulled out of operation for lack of water, a situation which
would have precipitated even more severe energy rationing.
Also promising was the agreement reached this weekend by
the government and power companies Endesa and Gener for
the provision of 500 additional megawatts of power needed to
reinforce the Central Interconnected System (SIC) power
grid, which provides power to some 90 percent of the
country.
Endesa, responsible for 55 percent of the country's
production, promised to invest some US$140 million to
produce 303 additional megawatts for the SIC within 90
days. Second largest provider Gener said it would negotiate
the purchase of 200 additional megawatts from autonomous
providers.
And Tratabel, part-owner of the county's third largest
producer, Colbun, said it would purchase majority control of
Colbun (40 percent is owned by the state) in order to
increase its contribution. Colbun is the owner of the
Nehuenco plant, whose unanticipated shutdown earlier this
year compounded the electricity shortage.
No decision, however, has been made regarding who is to
pay for this new energy investment, and most of the new
energy agreed upon will not be available before late August.
The decision by the energy companies to work with the
government may have been hastened by new legislation now
working its way through Parliament to protect consumers. It
is expected to become law in 10 to 15 days. The proposed
law, currently in the hands of Chamber of Deputies' Mining
and Energy Commission, won't provide retroactive
compensation to consumers for power cuts that started in
February, but will raise fines dramatically.
The deal between the government and the companies also
calls for the creation of a national electric energy savings
commission to help voluntarily reduce energy consumption.
City lights and billboards that have been glowing brightly
throughout the energy crisis will now be turned off in
response to the crisis.
"After five days the facts demonstrate that we're on the right
path and that we have the means to overcome this situation
as soon as possible," said Interior Minister Raul Troncoso.
Troncoso said electricity rationing could be eased or
eliminated entirely in the next few weeks, but he was careful
to note that a return to normal rainfall levels would be
necessary. University of Chile geophysics forecasters,
however, predicted there would be little recovery this year
from the current drought, one of the main causes of the
current electricity crisis.
The new energy savings commission, headed by
Presidential Secretary John Biehl, will set savings goals and
propose concrete methods to achieve them. It will be made
up of government authorities, electricity company
representatives and major energy consumers. President
Eduardo Frei also ordered the implementation of internal
government plans aimed at achieving a 10-percent drop in
electricity use by government entities.
*Chile Information Project
*The End*
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Monti Aguirre
Latin American Campaigns
International Rivers Network
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Berkeley, CA. 94703 USA
Phone: 510 . 848.11.55 and 707 . 591 .91.49
Fax: 510 . 848.10.08
e-mail: monti @irn.org
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