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The Argentine Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, announced on the night of March 20 the “transitory” intervention of the energy distribution company Edesur, controlled by the Italian Enel, after prolonged power outages in the midst of an oppressive heat wave.
“We have instructed the ENRE (National Electricity Regulation Entity) to proceed with the intervention of the Edesur company for 180 days for the purposes of monitoring compliance with the works and, above all, to improve the service that the company should have,” Massa said in a press release.
Last week, in the midst of the ninth heat wave of the summer with temperatures above 30 degrees even at night, tens of thousands of homes suffered power outages lasting several hours and up to several days, most of them Edesur clients.
“We want to make it clear that the property of the shareholders is not affected; that the concession contract is not affected, but that the State will carry out, through intervention, the effective supervision of compliance with the contract,” Massa warned. .
The intervention measure is “transitory and exceptional in nature and is the result of Edesur’s deficient actions in terms of compliance with the service,” said the minister.
The government will execute a sentence for the amount of 2,700 million pesos (12.8 million dollars at the exchange rate of the day) that “imply a refund mechanism by the company to the users of the service,” the statement said.
Since the privatization of the service in 1992, which granted the concession for 95 years, the companies Edenor and Edesur share the supply of electricity to the north and south of the capital and its periphery, where a total of 15 million people live, almost a third of Argentines.
The minister pointed out that “as of February 13, when 180,000 users were out of service, new events of medium and low voltage supply cuts occurred repeatedly, which represents an evident and systematic breach” of the service.
“Over the last 15 days we have experienced situations that hit and hurt us all,” Massa said, as “seeing shops having to throw away their merchandise, homes without electricity and without water due to the lack of electricity throughout and along the width of the Edesur concession area”.
Last week the government filed a criminal complaint against the Edesur authorities for “the alleged commission of the crimes of fraud of agreed rights, abandonment of people and obstruction of public services,” the note recalled.
The intervention will be in charge of engineer Jorge Ferraresi, mayor of the city of Avellaneda (southern periphery) and former Minister of Territorial Development.
