On the instructions of the Ministry of Energy, the controller of the national electricity regulatory authority ENRE, Walter Martello, announced that he had filed a complaint against Edesur, which distributes electricity to half of the greater Buenos Aires metropolitan area (nearly 14 million inhabitants).
The complaint was filed for "fraud", "obstruction of public services", "abandonment of people", said the controller. On Wednesday he had already denounced insufficient investments by private operators on the network, and addressed a threat to Edesur on the sustainability of the concession, granted in 1992, and which in theory still runs 64 years.
Argentine presidential spokeswoman Gabriela Cerruti said the complaint against Edesur "is justified by what has happened in recent days."
Regarding the concession, she said that the State "will carefully examine" an audit of ENRE on possible points "that would justify the withdrawal of the concession from Edesur". She questioned the modus operandi of privatizations of the 90s, "with concessions for almost 100 years".
The communication from Enel-Argentina, contacted by AFP, did not wish to react at first, saying it had not been notified of the complaint.
Several neighborhoods in Buenos Aires have seen protests this week by exasperated residents against repeated power cuts, often lasting a few hours but sometimes several days or even a week, which have affected hundreds of thousands of homes this summer against the backdrop of historic heat waves and high demand on the network.
Some 37,000 homes remained without electricity Thursday at midday, compared to 113,000 Wednesday, an almost daily average - but in changing neighborhoods - for two weeks.
Buenos Aires is experiencing its hottest summer since records began (1906), with a final heat wave that lasted about ten days.
© 2023 AFP