While Venezuelan authorities claim that the power system of the Caracas metropolitan area is extremely safe, two major power blackouts hit the capital city in just eight days. On August 28 and September 5, power supply was disrupted in the area served by state-run power utility Electricidad de Caracas (EDC).

Both events occurred coincidentally during weekends, when power demand declines, and at a time of school holidays. Therefore, at the time of the power outages, consumption was not at its average historical level.

Jorge Pirela, a former general manager of EDC, said that the state-run utility is facing distribution and transmission problems rather than power generation issues. According to a report issued by EDC, a subsidiary of the National Electric Corporation (Corpoelec), the power outage recorded on September 5 in some sectors of the cities of Guarenas and Guatire, in the outskirts of Caracas, and some neighborhoods in the eastern part of the city, "was caused by a fire at the Palo Verde electrical substation."

Pirela acknowledged that he did not know all details related to the blackout. However, he said that "it is difficult to understand how an event at Palo Verde (eastern Caracas) could spread so much," particularly to Caracas suburbs.

He said that the Papelón-Convento substation, which was mentioned by a government spokeswoman, "is the safest and most reliable substation in the system."
According to university professor Jesús Rafael Pacheco, the failure "occurred in the auxiliary systems of the Palo Verde substation." 

When the substation failed, direct current did not feed the system protection mechanisms. Such mechanisms -which are intended to prevent further damage to the electricity grid- were not triggered. Therefore, a fire occurred in the board. The fire reached the Convento substation, on the slopes of Avila hill, north Caracas.

Later, he added, "transformers came out of service and power lines close to the substation were switched off." The expert explained that the original failure, i.e. the lack of direct current to the protection mechanisms, "is due to the lack of maintenance and monitoring" by EDC.

Translated by Gerardo Cárdenas