San Diego power outage reaches sixth day, Borick furious — MercoPress

San Diego power outage reaches sixth day, Borick is furious

“We are talking about a regulated monopoly,” Borick stressed.

Chilean President Gabriel Borick Fonte on Wednesday instructed the Energy Ministry to review its agreement with Enel to supply electricity to the Santiago metropolitan area, as the blackout affected some 60,000 households for a sixth day.

The company failed to deliver on its promise to fully restore services on Tuesday, with only half of its customers benefiting from repairs. Borick also urged the supplier to compensate customers for losses caused by the poor service.

“I told the managers of Enel and other companies that they should set some criteria and pay compensation in advance, not waiting to receive the fine through the sanctions process, but to provide compensation in advance to those who have been without electricity these days. Think about the small and medium-sized enterprises, think about the goods that are lost, think about the refrigerators that are affected and the food inside them,” Borick stressed during a press conference held at La Moneda Palace.

In Borick’s view, electricity distributors “have not adhered to the legal deadlines for restoring service. They have not even lived up to the promises they made day in and day out during this emergency. They have not kept their promised deployment of staff,” he insisted.

“Some companies, like Enel, are trying to save money while people still have no electricity in their homes. This is absolutely unacceptable from my point of view as president of the republic and, by the way, it damages the credibility of the companies and seriously harms the sector,” he added.

“In the case of Enel, they have not even fulfilled the obligations they promised. Emergency situations require, and we know that they are becoming more and more frequent in our country, especially weather emergencies, that companies be prepared and have the necessary resources to respond to them, to fulfil their duties and provide assistance to thousands of families who are currently in a very delicate situation, even those who have been without electricity since Thursday evening and do not know when the problem will be solved, since the company has not given clear instructions in this regard,” Boic continued.

The head of state also noted: “As President of the Republic, I am in favor of increasing sanctions so that there is no doubt that the most important thing here is the people, rather than bearing fines in the final cost without worrying about the urgency of the people, without worrying about those who live in communities without electricity today.”

“I have asked the Minister of Energy to assess these issues in light of all the current context, and we must approach these issues with a high degree of responsibility. Of course, this takes time, and we are talking about a regulated monopoly, but it is possible and difficult, which is why I have asked the Minister to assess them based on the company’s actions,” he also noted.

Asked whether the termination of Enel’s concession was a possibility, Energy Minister Diego Pardow replied: “We have been evaluating it for a few days, but the only thing we can announce at this point is that it is being evaluated in all aspects because it will have many consequences.”

Regarding the end of the blackout, he also explained that “with every day and every hour that passes, the situation is getting worse and worse, and it is the responsibility of the power company, with the cooperation of the government, to find ways to speed up the restoration of power supply, so to speak.”

Enel General Manager Víctor Tavera promised late Tuesday that power would be fully restored soon. But about 35,000 households still had no electricity, and only about 26,700 had it restored.