Power lines seen during a blackout in the Catia neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, March 8, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso
Rodrigo Linares, Business Insider/Caracas Chronicles: 11 reasons Venezuela is mired in a nationwide blackout — and why the problem may not be fixed any time soon
* Venezuela is currently dealing with nationwide blackouts that have lasted for days.
* The embattled government of President Nicolas Maduro has blamed the outages on sabotage.
* But power cuts have become common as Venezuela's electrical industry loses investment and know-how.
How did this blackout begin? What started the event?
There is no official information. The regime only says this is an act of sabotage, and that US Senator Marco Rubio and the Venezuelan opposition are to blame for it.
From people inside the electric industry, we know that an overheat alarm was triggered between the San Geronimo B and Malena substations, which are like nodes. San Geronimo B is just South of Valle de La Pascua (Guarico state, central plains); Malena is a bit in the middle of nowhere, between Bolivar's Trocal 19 and the Orinoco River.
From San Geronimo B substation, comes the electric load to power all the TVs, light bulbs, blenders, etc. At Malena substation end the cables that come directly from the turning water wheels of the Guri dam. If you follow the lines from Guri, the country's main dam South of Ciudad Guayana, they go North from Guri to Malena and San Geronimo, and from there it splits into several lines going to the central region and then to the rest of the country (East and West).
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WNU Editor: A cyber attack is not the reason why Venezuela's power grid failed. And to make sure that another major blackout does not happen again, invest the monies and resources to maintain and upgrade the system. But if history is any indication, the current government under Maduro is not going to do it. In the meantime the incredible suffering in Venezuela continues .... The heartbreaking footage that lays bare the depth of Venezuela's crisis: Mother carries body of her emaciated 22lb daughter to a morgue after the 19-year-old died when doctors couldn’t treat her because the blackout forced hospitals to shut (Daily Mail).
