At a news conference in Buenos Aires, Energy and Mining Minister Juan Jose Aranguren announced measures to ration electricity and added that the state of emergency will likely be in place until 2017.
“The president of the nation, Mauricio Macri, has raised an emergency decree on the national electricity system. We estimate that this emergency is going to last. Regarding the capacity to resolve the problem, we estimate it is going to last until 2017,” he said.
According to official statistics, demands on the country’s electrical grid reached 23,000 megawatts this week, with the installed national maximum at 26,000 megawatts. With demand close to reaching capacity, Aranguren said the rations were in place to avoid a meltdown in the system.
“Today we’re on the border of collapse. If we take the necessary precautions, we can avoid it,” said the energy minister.
Many residents of Buenos Aires have already felt the brunt of electrical shortages for years.
Argentina’s new President Mauricio Macri is a former Buenos Aires mayor and introduced emergency measures for the capital’s electricity system in 2013 to cope with growing pressures on the grid. (Reuters)