Theft, maintenance gap spark Venezuela blackouts

OREANDA-NEWS. October 21, 2015. Escalating power outages in Venezuela stem from growing theft of electricity equipment and a chronic lack of maintenance at key installations, rather than sabotage as the government alleges, local officials and accident records indicate.

The blackouts have thwarted operations at state-owned PdV?s oil refineries, aggravating fuel supply shortages.

Electricity minister Luis Motta Dominguez said saboteurs have attacked the national power grid 13 times since 1 October, triggering regional blackouts in 10 states lasting up to 10 days in places.

No one has been arrested in connection with the alleged attacks cited by Motta, who is also chief executive of state-owned utility Corpoelec.

But Motta said the culprits are "attacking electricity and oil infrastructure nationally in a systematic, continuous attempt to destabilize the electrical system."

The government "has proof" that saboteurs caused the recent surge in blackouts mainly in the country's heavily populated northwestern region.

"Saboteurs cut power transmission cables and tried to topple transmission towers on 1, 4, 6, 7, 11, 15, 17 and 18 October in the states of Zulia, Carabobo, Tachira, Bolivar, Falcon, Yaracuy, Anzoategui, Cojedes, Lara and Aragua," Motta Dominguez said.

Internal Corpolec reports on the 13 incidents obtained by Argus describe outages, fires and explosions caused by thieves apparently trying to steal copper transmission cables and other equipment that can be sold for scrap.

"It's theft, not sabotage," Fetraelec power union president Angel Navas tells Argus. "Cutting copper power cables and steel transmission towers destabilizes the grid, but the underlying motive of the thieves is economic, not political."

Cash-starved Corpoelec has not maintained the grid properly for years, increasing the frequency and severity of the grid's structural failures, he said.

The defense ministry also lacks the budget and material resources to guard power and oil facilities, which makes it easy to steal with impunity, Navas added.

Motta said cables supplying PdV's Bajo Grande terminal in Zulia were cut on 1 October and again on 7 October.

Severed cables at a substation in Carabobo also forced PdV's 146,000 b/d refinery to shut down in early October.

Motta also hinted that saboteurs caused the 1 October blackout that forced PdV to shut down its 940,000 b/d CRP refining complex in Paraguana.

PdV and the energy ministry, which to date have not determined that the CRP's blackout was caused deliberately, declined to comment on Motta's allegations.

PdV operators at the CRP tell Argus the 1 October blackout appears to have been caused by an equipment failure in the Genevapca thermal power plant that serves the refining complex.

"The CRP blackout was lack of preventive maintenance, not sabotage," a PdV official at CRP said.

The CRP, which includes the 635,000 b/d Amuay refinery and nearby 305,000 b/d Cardon refinery is not fully operational yet, the official added. Cardon is operating at about a third of its nameplate and Amuay at about 50pc, he added.

"The CRP is processing under 500,000 b/d of crude, and gasoline production particularly has been impacted by unresolved problems in Cardon's catalytic cracker which have delayed its restart," the official said.

Motta also blamed saboteurs for a 6 October transformer blast at the Corozo substation near San Cristobal in Tachira state, knocking over 200MW of regional power supply off the grid for 10 days.

Motta Dominguez tells Argus that a sniper fired twice at the transformer, triggering the explosion.

But a report from San Cristobal's fire department and civil protection authorities blamed the Corozo substation fire on Corpoelec.

"The affected transformer and the Corozo substation in general were not maintained and were in poor condition before the fire; the surrounding vegetation was dense and dry, and hot oil leaking from the transformer caused the explosion and fire," the report obtained by Argus says.

No forensic evidence of sabotage or gunfire was found at the damaged Corozo substation, the report adds.