Power Problems

[ARbound]

I was just wondering if anyone else expierences constant brownouts?

I'm in Vicente Lopez and once a week for the past 3 weeks, power has gone off after sunset for a few hours.

Last Friday, (not 3 days ago) it went off for 5 almost 6 hours. Last night it went off for 3 hours, from 22 to almost 1. This morning it went off for 1.5 hours, and it just went out 30 mins ago and is still out.

Now, before anyone asks, it's not just my place, it's a couple houses on our street, but not my neighbors, and the street above us also has a few out.

Is this common in Argentina? Or is it just part of town? I'm moving to Palermo at the end of the month hopefully and I'm starting to wonder if I need to invest in batteries and a generator.

I'm fearful for when it's high demand season for AC's if it's this constant in the winter here.

Perhaps I'm overreacting and just need to accept this as a charm of Arge like never paying the same amount for the Same groceries week to week or the privilege of quality "Industria Argentina" goods.

 

[Davidglen77]

I've never lived in Vicente López, however having lived in Capital Federal for 7 years, I can tell you that while we don't have blackouts or brownouts on a daily basis at this time of year, in the summer we did. Especially last year (summer of 2012) I was without electricity for over 5 days straight! Keep in mind when you have no electricity and you live in a building that also means NO WATER as the water pumps in buildings require electricity to operate. Was a total disaster, almost an entire refrigerator full of food in the garbage, bringing buckets of water up the stairs, no way to wash dishes, and a 90 year old neighbor that we had to all pitch in and bring water to or else she would have perished. And I lived RIGHT in front of the Congreso Nacional at the time. And all of the buildings on my side of the block had the same problem. I recently moved a few blocks away to a much bigger building and so far so good. No power outages as of yet.

 

[Peony54]

This happens sometimes in my neighborhood when they're doing work (not sure on what) and need to
Cut off the power

 

[internationalguy]

I've never lived in Vicente López, however having lived in Capital Federal for 7 years, I can tell you that while we don't have blackouts or brownouts on a daily basis at this time of year, in the summer we did. Especially last year (summer of 2012) I was without electricity for over 5 days straight! Keep in mind when you have no electricity and you live in a building that also means NO WATER as the water pumps in buildings require electricity to operate. Was a total disaster, almost an entire refrigerator full of food in the garbage, bringing buckets of water up the stairs, no way to wash dishes, and a 90 year old neighbor that we had to all pitch in and bring water to or else she would have perished. And I lived RIGHT in front of the Congreso Nacional at the time. And all of the buildings on my side of the block had the same problem. I recently moved a few blocks away to a much bigger building and so far so good. No power outages as of yet.

I had the exact same situation like a month ago. It was strange though because the apartment had power but the water pumps, intercom, elevators didn't. I thought it was going to be solved in a couple of days but it lasted around 10 days. It affected other buildings on my block and the power company spent days breaking the sidewalk and digging trying to find the problem. I eventually went out to buy more buckets because all there was was a small bucket with no handle. On one of my trips downstairs I ran into a neighbor that knows me and my story so she started laughing because she knew how shocking that was for me (it was shocking enough for her). She laughed and said, this is how people run into each other in the first world. She was also hauling buckets of water upstairs but she just said, be glad that you're 5B.... I'm 10A.

 

[Davidglen77]

I had the exact same situation like a month ago. It was strange though because the apartment had power but the water pumps, intercom, elevators didn't. I thought it was going to be solved in a couple of days but it lasted around 10 days. It affected other buildings on my block and the power company spent days breaking the sidewalk and digging trying to find the problem. I eventually went out to buy more buckets because all there was was a small bucket with no handle. On one of my trips downstairs I ran into a neighbor that knows me and my story so she started laughing because she knew how shocking that was for me (it was shocking enough for her). She laughed and said, this is how people run into each other in the first world. She was also hauling buckets of water upstairs but she just said, be glad that you're 5B.... I'm 10A.

What you mention is when there is an outage in one of the "fases" of the power grid. They are given the least priority by Edenor / Edesur, who knows why, but those take forever to get resolved. I hope it never happens to you again. The building that I lived in when that happened to me only has 14 apartments, and where I live now there are 200 plus apartments, and 14 floors, it would be a much more serious issue here.

 

[ARbound]

I had the exact same situation like a month ago. It was strange though because the apartment had power but the water pumps, intercom, elevators didn't. I thought it was going to be solved in a couple of days but it lasted around 10 days. It affected other buildings on my block and the power company spent days breaking the sidewalk and digging trying to find the problem. I eventually went out to buy more buckets because all there was was a small bucket with no handle. On one of my trips downstairs I ran into a neighbor that knows me and my story so she started laughing because she knew how shocking that was for me (it was shocking enough for her). She laughed and said, this is how people run into each other in the first world. She was also hauling buckets of water upstairs but she just said, be glad that you're 5B.... I'm 10A.

Yikes! That's rough. It came back on last night after an hour and a half, which was shorter than usual. I didn't really think about the water pumps/elevators thing, especially now that I'll (hopefully) be living in an apartment soon. I guess I thought if the power companies/buildings knew this was a problem in the (especially in the summer) they'd look in to generators but then again, this is Argentina.

I'm assuming the 10 days is 10 days straight? That's a brutal amount of time. Did they ever tell you guys what the issue was?

What happens when the power is out for so long? I assume I already know the answer (nothing), but do the power companies get fined or
have to give you credits or something? I was living in the North East a few years ago when there was the blackout there and the states, provinces,
and both Federal governments (Canada and the United States share a common grid system, especially in the North East) put a lot of pressure on,
and tried to work with the regional power authorities to revamp the systems we had.

I heard last summer was pretty bad in CABA. I'm hoping there isn't another repeat...

 

[internationalguy]

Yikes! That's rough. It came back on last night after an hour and a half, which was shorter than usual. I didn't really think about the water pumps/elevators thing, especially now that I'll (hopefully) be living in an apartment soon. I guess I thought if the power companies/buildings knew this was a problem in the (especially in the summer) they'd look in to generators but then again, this is Argentina.

I'm assuming the 10 days is 10 days straight? That's a brutal amount of time. Did they ever tell you guys what the issue was?

What happens when the power is out for so long? I assume I already know the answer (nothing), but do the power companies get fined or
have to give you credits or something? I was living in the North East a few years ago when there was the blackout there and the states, provinces,
and both Federal governments (Canada and the United States share a common grid system, especially in the North East) put a lot of pressure on,
and tried to work with the regional power authorities to revamp the systems we had.

I heard last summer was pretty bad in CABA. I'm hoping there isn't another repeat...

You mean the famous 03 blackout? Funny, because I was living in the tri state area at the time, Lucky for me I was down at the Jersey shore when it happened. But it was fun I guess for that night. Got everyone working though. The problem last year with that hurricane though... that must have been really bad.

My situation here... well there's more to that story. After the 10 days the power company gave up and set up a power generator. That powered up one elevator and should have taken care of the water pump. The thing was the water pump was fried because of the power surge or whatever. So for an entire weekend and two more days we were still using the buckets, we were using the elevator by then so it was like so much better.

 

[GS_Dirtboy]

Welcome to BA! From what I can see this is just the luck of the draw. Can happen anywhere, anytime but seems to happen more in the summer when the grid is under more stress.

 

[dennisr]

Electronics:
As dicy as the power quality is here, use a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) to insure quality power for electronics and computers.. Not only does it serve as a backup power supply, more importantly for Argentina, output is regulated and quality assured. Best protection for computers and electronics in my view.

 

[ARbound]

Hmmm I should look in to a UPS.

I think jinxed it as I got home at 17:20 and the powers been out since then. I opened the fridge and thought "I could swear there's a light in here" I turned, saw the microwave was of, tested a light switch then had a little bit of a hissy fit.

It's the irony if BA life that gets me, you know? I'm using a 3G signal on my iPhone to bitch about the power being out/brown outs. It's like wanna be first world problems.