Francisco Jaramillo, deputy director of operations at CGE, explained that approximately 8,000 of these outages are due to the frontal system that affected the region early Friday morning. “The main reasons are the fall of trees, advertising signs and roofs on the electrical system, which causes 60 failures that we have to start rebuilding that same day,” Jaramillo explained.
He indicated that CGE has mobilized more than 1,100 work teams from Coquimbo to Araucanía to deal with the emergency, with 198 specific brigades in the O’Higgins region. Jaramillo indicated that “the frontal system resembles the destruction that occurred in the 2010 earthquake” and added that the usual contingent of brigades in the region has been increased sixfold to address the magnitude of the damage.
As a self-criticism, Jaramillo indicated that it is “the lack of greater technology in order to be able to invest in the networks, unfortunately the greater investment implies a significant tariff and regulatory change. But we can have a change in that and be able to have a more resilient network every year, so that we can, first, find out from the first moment of the supply shortage and also react to the reestablishment of the situation.”
Asked when the power supply would be restored, he said, “Today (Monday) there are sectors in which we plan to restore them today (Monday) and tomorrow there will be a specific situation, block by block, house by house, which we will have to address with the contingent we have here.”
Meanwhile, the regional manager of CGE, Mariano Morales, highlighted that the 33 mayors of the region have been contacted with a list of sectors without supply and estimated times for replacement.
He explained that the most affected communes include Requínoa, Rengo, Chimbarongo, Rancagua and Doñihue, where he indicated that the company is working to restore service in these priority areas and that it is expected that a large part of the affected clients will have their supply restored between Monday and Tuesday. “Today (Monday) we have about 19,000 clients without supply in the region and as I was saying, we hope that by the end of the day tomorrow (Tuesday) we will have at least this group of clients resolved.”
He added, “We are making every effort and we hope that a large part of the service will be restored today (Monday) and there will be a portion of customers who, due to the damage to the infrastructure, will be restored by the end of the day tomorrow (Tuesday).”
HOW TO APPLY FOR COMPENSATION?
Regarding possible financial compensation, Morales indicated that “indeed, we must inform all our clients in the O’Higgins region that there is compensation, especially for the issue of food loss, considering that we are going to be without supplies for a couple of days. And we invite our clients to register, either through digital channels, on the web, or by visiting our offices, and if indeed, for their peace of mind, there will be financial compensation for food that is in poor condition,” Morales stated.
He explained that “compensation is quick, it will be financial compensation. We are thinking of an amount, this is approximately 25 thousand pesos for damages related to food or nutrition. And also if there are indications of higher damages, we will ask if there is any proof. But we do have all the will, we have the channels available to be able to serve all clients. And also our offices in the different communes in the O’Higgins region.”
He explained that to carry out this compensation, “we have the website, the phone number 700-700-867 and also the offices here in Rancagua, in Rengo, in Las Cabras and various offices where clients can go. We are going to have a mobile office that we are going to announce the hours and days that we are going to be in each of the communes so that clients can make their claims in a mobile office and not have to travel from one commune to another.”
In this way, CGE’s work plan aims to achieve the normalization of energy in the region in the next few hours.
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