He wants to clarify if it is a problem of ‘indoor’ marijuana plantations, as Endesa points out, or if it is the effect of the company’s low investment in the network
A year ago, in the middle of winter and low temperatures, the residents of four neighborhoods with structural problems of poverty and neglect raised their voices to denounce, in El Periódico, the constant and incessant power cuts. One year later, in many of them the situation has improvedor. But the cuts continue to exist as if it were an eternal ordeal. The Generalitat announces an external and independent audit to measure the quality of the energy in each neighborhood and be able to find the definitive solution: put an end to the electrical fraud of indoor marijuana plantations, or fine Endesa for having a faulty network. “We cannot allow the electrical precariousness of the neighbors who pay their bills”, explains Assumpta Ferran, General Director of Energy of the Government.
Exactly one year ago, the residents of Culubret (Figueres) feared that the incessant power outages would lead several elderly people in the neighborhood to fatal falls. The mothers of the Font de la Pòlvora (Girona) had to shower their children with pots of hot water and in Sant Roc (Badalona) they did not even have electricity to heat the bottles. In Torre Baró, the laments came from the elderly who spent their nights praying that their respirator would not stop working in the middle of the night. A year later, the situation seems to have improved. But it has not been resolved.
fewer cuts
“We are not like last year, but it will be days. On Thursday of last week there was a cut, this Monday another. They are short, two hours. More police and Endesa inspections are seen, and the company’s technicians made some changes,” says Anna Hernandez, neighbor of Culubret (Figueres). “Yes, the situation has improved, but it has not been fixed,” he ditches. An answer very similar to the one you have Pamela Heredia, from the neighborhood association that seeks to dignify the neighborhood of the Gunpowder Fountain in Girona. “Endesa has changed the transformer, the wiring and since then it continues to go but less. When the electricity goes out, the workers come and in two or three hours they fix it”, he explains. “We began to see the light, the last day there was a cut was December 22, although other points in the neighborhood do have a few more,” he says.
In Sant Roc the cuts continue to be long and intense. But only in a very specific sector of the neighborhood, Calle Alfons XII. “The night of Kings they were 24 hours without light. And it has been daily ever since. Cuts that start in the afternoon and last until the next day. It is the time when there are more people at home, when it is colder and when they turn on more devices”, complains Carles Sagués, from the Sant Roc Som Badalona platform. The platform is already considering making more forceful actions, how to cut the highway, but for now they have planted up to the district headquarters to request an urgent meeting with the neighborhood councillor.
Wiring upgrades or electrical fraud?
“Even heThe operators tell us that the network is obsolete, that it has to be changed. It is true that there are punctured families, but they do it because they cannot pay. Either they put social accountants and solve the issue at once or we will have a scare again, a fire… and people peeling from the cold and living poorly for another year”, insists Sagués. “From Mencui to Font de la Pòlvora: the problem is that Endesa does not invest in neighbors that are not profitable. And electricity is a right,” criticizes Maria Campuzano, spokesperson for the Aliança contra la Pobresa Energètica (APE).
Endesa again points to electricity fraud to explain these cuts. “All these neighborhoods share the same common denominator, they pay for the neighbor’s malpractice. Until the plantations are closed, there will continue to be cuts”, explains a spokesman. However, this same spokesman points out that the company is taking actions so that the power outages affect as little as possible. “We are doing improvements to fluff up the network: sectorizations to delimit the electrical phases that give light separating block by block, In Torre Baró, Ciutat Vella, Sants Monjuïc and Nou Barris we have changed the transformer, and we are providing more connection points. There has not been a single interruption of service,” explains the Endesa spokesman.
An external audit and a dozen sanctions
“What does happen is that there is electrical precariousness: these neighbors who religiously pay the bill do not have correct access”, insists the general director of energy, Magda Ferran. “We want to know why, and that is why we will carry out an audit of the Generalitat that will have to tell us if the transformers and power lines are dimensioned for the consumption of homes and legalized activities, or is it related to criminal activity, illegal marijuana plantations,” Ferran assumes.
The person in charge of the Generalitat does not conceive of another scenario, she explains, because she assumes that if there are still neighbors ‘punctured’ up to date by necessity, the network would not jump. “The network has to be dimensioned for all the houses: they are full, empty or punctured”, says Ferran. The last audits commissioned by the Government ended with 10 sanctioning files to the electric ones. In this case, explains the Director General, due to the poor state of the network after storm Gloria in some neighborhoods and towns of Catalonia.
The drama of the Pyrenees
In the case of Mencui, the small town that has been waiting for power for 10 years, Ferran assumes that they are processing the permits to expropriate the land and be able to build the desired power lines. Although, according to her, it could have been decided to build solar panels that would give electricity to the town. “They asked us for permits to expropriate and this is what we will do, but it takes time,” he says. However, it assumes that in the Pallars counties, especially Pallars Jussà, there is a serious problem of electrical precariousness. “The network is from the last century and must be updated and adapted to real needs. The problem is that it belongs to the municipalities, which do not have the money to cover these expenses. Each of these towns has to assume about 100,000 euros, and they cannot,” explains Ferran.
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Solar panels against the price of electricity
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