(It’s El Niño’s fault? Ja! Ja! Ja!)
Today’s El Nacional has this table compiled from the country’s Electric Corporation which shows the performance of the different thermoelectric power plants managed by CADAFE:
As you can see, of the total generation capacity of 4,507 MW installed, barely 941 MW or 20.9 % of the installed capacity, demonstrating that the problems we are having have little to do with the level of the Guri dam or the atmospheric phenomenon El Niño, but have more to do with the sheer incompetence and the lack of investment in maintenance of “Er Niño Chávez” and the people he has surrounded himself with, mostly mediocre military who can not tell the difference between a MW and a MHz.
But the sheer incompetence of the robolution can bee seen right there in that table, the Josefa Camejo plant in Falcón State was started and built by the Chávez administration, but it only produces a fraction of its potential because someone forgot to build the associated transmission lines. Thus, the plant produces too much for the nearby cities and is not part of the interconnected system, running at a lower capacity. Way to go Hugo!
The remarkable thing is that Chávez continues to blame the problem on the Guri dam and on the projects for hydroelectric power plants that he stopped in order to favor thermoelectric projects that either don’t exist and/or work as well as the table above shows.
The Devil's Excrement 
January 28, 2010 at 5:13 pm
Mientras se permite todas las mentiras de un solo hombre y no salga alguien con suficiente valor para comunicar la verdad nada se ac con estos mensajes
January 27, 2010 at 12:00 am
For all the people who made comments here asking about more info on the Venezuela’s events, I have a blog in both Spanish-English where I publish the latest news from sources other than the news. Not all the articles are in both languages but a lot are. Go to ovario.wordpress.com so you can read some of the news that I get through organizations all over the world. I even have a summary of the 11 years of dictatorship that we published at midnight on Dec. 31, 2009. Check it out. It’s a non-profit blog that a small team of Venezuela lovers have put together with a lot of effort.
January 26, 2010 at 7:39 pm
The 450MW Josefa Camejo thermo plant (built to the tune of $300 million US) was slated to start operating its first 150MW turbine during the first quarter of 2007, and was scheduled to start operating at full capacity by the end of 2008. As usual, Cadafe would operate the plant, and PDVSA would “own” it. Unfortunately, they forgot you needed a means of DELIVERING said power to the grid, and the power lines were never installed.
Caramba – who forgot to string those blooming wires?!
Of course the Camejo plant never got up to speed and they eventually had to buy a mobile 26MW thermo plant. Part of the “power” said to currently be generated by the Camejo plant might still be coming from the mobile plant. Need to fact check this.
Either way, it is most unusual that such frank numbers about the sistema central would evern make their way into El National, if in fact these numbers are real – and this is always a question in Chavez’ Bolocircus.
That such a staggering admission of administrative incompetance was ever made public is a huge political statement in itself.
My sense of it is there is some frantic behind the scenes wrangling going on in order to shift blame before the energy crisis goes full scale and hospitals start going dark.
According to one report: “The electricity problem is the result of a lack of timely planning,” said Angel Navas, president of Fetraelec, the union that represents 28,000 workers in the sector. “At this level we need large, coordinated solutions.”
Here is Senor Navas trying to absolve his 28,000 workers from all responsibility, and shifting the blame over to the “planners.” Next, I suspect the “planers” will blame El Nino, or the CIA, or the earth quake machine. But it’s looking more and more like whoever controls the press will skate on this one, and by the looks of that table in El Nacional, the cat is excaping the bag, and rampant incompetance wil have to fall on someone’s shoulders soon enough.
January 26, 2010 at 6:28 pm
No, I think there was confusion because the President of Banco de Venezuela not Banco Central de Venezuela resigned.
January 26, 2010 at 6:26 pm
I heard today that the president (director?) of the Banco Central de Venezuela, as well as some other high directives of the Central Bank resigned either last night or this morning… Can someone confirm this? If it is true, then they’re really aware the ship is sinking and the first abandoning seem to be some pretty heavy-weight sailors… O.o Any info on this? Is it true? A chavista with military links was the one that told me that today… (She’s really worried, btw…)
January 26, 2010 at 6:03 pm
Can’t lin, by subscription:
De las 45 unidades que tienen los 3 sistemas regionales sólo 16 están funcionando
Por fallas y mantenimiento el parque termoeléctrico de Cadafe está funcionando a 23% de su capacidad, indica un reporte de Corpoelec del 20 de enero pasado.
Cadafe, la empresa más efectiva del holding, suministra 40% de la generación eléctrica del país y genera electricidad mediante 12 plantas termoeléctricas ubicadas en el sistema central, el occidental y el oriental. La sumatoria de la capacidad instalada es de 3.967 Mw diarios, de los cuales Planta Centro, en Puerto Cabello, aporta 2.000 Mw.
El documento es el reporte diario del 20 de enero pasado.
Especialistas en el sector eléctrico reconocen que no es un informe técnico exhaustivo, pero sí es una fotografía del estado de las plantas. “Podría decirse que será el estatus de lo que nos espera de no haber inversión”, dijo Miguel Lara.
El reporte señala que por problemas operativos, de las 45 unidades que tienen los sistemas regionales 17 están indisponibles por reparación o fallas, 2 desincorporadas y 10 en mantenimiento menor. Sólo 16 están en funcionamiento, es decir, un tercio de la maquinaria instalada (35%), con la cual se produjeron 921 Mw, de 3.967 Mw para los cuales está capacitado.
Las razones son varias. Por ejemplo, Planta Centro tiene 5 unidades; 2 no están disponibles porque se están reconvirtiendo a gas. Se esperaba que estuvieran listas en junio de 2009 pero el Gobierno ha pospuesto la fecha en 3 oportunidades, la última para febrero de este año.
Otras 2 unidades estuvieron paradas por fallas (una entrará en funciones en marzo y que la otra se detuvo por “fuga de agua desmineralizada”). Sólo 1 se encontraba operativa, la 4, que ese día produjo 228 Mw de los 400 Mw con los que se instaló en 1978. Otras razones son falta de recursos para rehabilitación, vibración y ruido de las turbinas.
El documento señala que hasta el 20 de enero no se habían registrado fallas mayores a 100 Mw. Para el mismo mes de 2009 se habían registrado 4, para un total de 93 alteraciones mayores.
Racionamiento marcado. El informe detalla el racionamiento aplicado para los sistemas occidental, central y oriental, el 20 de enero, que da una semblanza sobre la forma como la provincia vive el recorte eléctrico más que Caracas para preservar al Guri. A lo largo del día, en occidente se aplicaron racionamientos que afectaron a Apure, Táchira, Mérida, Barinas y Trujillo, por entre 40 minutos a 10 horas 30 minutos.
En el centro las medidas afectaron a Apure, Aragua, Guárico, Portuguesa, Miranda, Yaracuy, Falcón, Carabobo, por lapsos de 2 a 11 horas. Y en oriente sufrieron Anzoátegui, Monagas, Bolívar de 2 a 12 horas.
January 26, 2010 at 5:48 pm
Just fkg incredible.
All the BS about Guri & El Niño and here is the evidence of the incompetence right here in B&W.
It makes me so mad & upset that we have to suffer for the unbelievable stupidity of this so called socialism & the idiots who blindly lead & follow it.
My patience is wearing mighty thin. I’ve had to curb my tongue in the presence of my family who have one Chavista member. No one is allowed to bring up politics & when it inevitably does come up she mouthes the propaganda of VTV.
Well here is the evidence of just a small part of the “BIG LIE”
Is there a link to the Spanish article in El National or could you reproduce it in Spanish?