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Post by coolcoil on Nov 7, 2016 10:52:40 GMT -5
I just got this email from my company's international security service. They send out emails from time-to-time to warn about any known security or travel disruptions.:
Colombia: Anticipate power outages, associated disruption due to electricity rationing from 9 November
OVERVIEW
Level: Notice
Location: Colombia;
Category: Electricity outage
Last Updated: 07 Nov 2016 15:36 (GMT)
Members planning to undertake travel in northern Colombia, particularly Atlantico, Bolivar, Cesar, Cordoba, La Guajira, Magdalena and Sucre departments, should maintain flexible itineraries to account for possible disruption caused by the scheduled rationing of electricity from 9 November. Power will be cut for 21 hours every day from 9 November to 16 December and 20 hours every day from 17 December; specific hours have yet to be announced. The rationing measures, which are expected to impact around 2.5m people, are being implemented because of continued missed payments by electrical company Electricaribe to government transmission companies.
I hadn't heard anything about this before, but I haven't been on top of local news lately. I assume the companies will work something out to avoid the disruption.
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Post by livinginmedellin on Nov 7, 2016 11:27:47 GMT -5
Electricaribe the electric utility company on the Atlantic coast is facing a serious financial crisis. Electricaribe distributes energy in seven departments of the Atlantic coast and has argued that it has a cash problem due to the lack of payment of many of its clients, who owe $ 4.05 trillion pesos, since last September. The company has had difficulties in recent weeks to make payments of financial guarantees for the energy it acquires in the market. Because of non-payment of guarantees for 27,692 million pesos on October 18, the limitation of energy to Electricaribe will be three hours a day from November 9 to December 16, and four hours from December 17th. In addition, due to the non-payment of a guarantee of October 20, the cut will be three hours a day from November 11 to December 18 and four from December 19. These cuts would affect Atlántico, Bolívar, Cesar, Córdoba, La Guajira, Magdalena and Sucre, where the company serves 2.5 million customers and would leave electricity off for several hours in tourist cities such as Cartagena, Barranquilla and Santa Marta and others. See (in Spanish): www.eltiempo.com/economia/empresas/limitacion-de-suministro-de-energia-a-electricaribe/16744246
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Post by ozgringo on Nov 7, 2016 15:15:32 GMT -5
This is absolutely outstanding.
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Post by livinginmedellin on Nov 7, 2016 15:30:04 GMT -5
Yeah, not a good time to travel to the coast to Cartagena, Santa Marta, etc. - not having electricity for AC would suck.
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Post by ozgringo on Nov 7, 2016 15:47:24 GMT -5
Yeah, not a good time to travel to the coast to Cartagena, Santa Marta, etc. - not having electricity for AC would suck. Especially with a 16 month old. It's not just the AC. Food Is a big worry. Frozen meat thaws then they just freeze it again.
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Post by ozgringo on Nov 7, 2016 16:38:32 GMT -5
Apparently it will be cut for 3 hours a day then 4 hours a day. Not the what was originally posted.
The power use to go out quite regularly in Cartagena.
Another example of the poor people on the coast getting royally screwed.
I believe the power company is owned by a Spanish company. Electricaribe is the most expensive provider in the country and also the worst.
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Post by billforce on Nov 7, 2016 17:53:05 GMT -5
Venezuela has lived with this for years but not because of non-payment. The Govt. is the service provider and Venezuela simply runs out of capacity so they ration power first to industry, then business and lastly domestic customers. As a former 20 year public utility company employee it has to be close to impossible to manage a utility company where the end client doesn't pay their bills. The only solution is for the Govt. of Colombia to either buy back or as the case in Venezuela simply TAKR BACK the public utilities and write off the losses. The only other way to manage a public utility successfully is to put in "pay up front meters", coin operated but that is a major undertaking in itself. I feel for the Spanish Utility Company because they have no recourse to be profitable. People use the electricity, it is gone forever and they don't pay for it. The company shuts off the service but can't collect for what was already used. Too costly to take the customer to court and even if a judgment it's UNCOLLECTABLE, catch 22? Of course you have the GREED factor also. the Govt. sells the Carbon (coal) in La Gaujira to a private company that mines and sells the coal offshore (probably China) and the Department gets a tiny fraction of the payment to the Govt. If the coal that is mined was simply used to generate power by the govt. instead of essentially giving the coal away (cheap price) the Govt. could provide power to all the poor recipients at a low cost that they could afford like $.01 a KW. The Govt. pisses away more than enough money to do that but of course they want the money from the Coal in their coffers. Additionally it would do way with a foreign company operating a utility company, especially one that is non-profitable like the Spanish company that made a huge mistake. Electric power is a national necessity, NOT a luxury in many cases and it's a Govt. problem to iron it out, they sold the company to the Spaniards under false pretenses, they knew it would never pay to operate it but found a "sucker" who thought they could make it work. The ONLY rescue is the Govt. operate the business at a loss, sorry but true. You can't get blood out of a turnip!
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Post by wildstubby on Nov 7, 2016 18:40:55 GMT -5
Yes, it could be quite unnerving especially with the 'super humidity' there in Cartagena. I remember watching buildings on the same street disappearing from view when it rained. I have to pause and wonder how @costenogringo is doing? I thought he was tied to the BQ area!
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