A few days ago, in an article titled Coriente a bai, atrobe, I talked about the island’s latest blackout. I said something lame: “I hope the Elmar crew is making the right decisions about our future. Elmar was in the news last year in August, October and November, because of current interruptions, then prices went up, then they went down. We even had two blackouts, in one day. We hope for smooth sailing from now on.”
Why lame, because it did not really reflect my thoughts. I wanted to say that such frequent current interruptions are unacceptable — and we didn’t even reach peak temperatures. Wait until September rolls around.
I read a bit about the subject of electricity this week and found out that MANY countries experiment with different business models. They privatize production, and leave the job of distribution, in the hands of a government agency, in light of the already existing infrastructure, designed to transform the high voltage output, into 110v/220v, required to operate electrical outlets.
So, the private sector produces electricity, it can do so much more efficiently, and the government agency distributes.
I am not saying that we should get up tomorrow morning and privatize production, I am just saying that there are options, and the 100% centralized system we have, puts us in danger, because electricity means tourism, cars, appliances, not just air conditioning.
The Elmar press release explaining the interruption, as a circuit malfunction, resulting from the heat wave, experienced by the island in recent days, was not funny.
We have grown accustomed, numb, we don’t even react with outrage anymore.
In general we are accepting of many unacceptables.
The excessive taxation, the absence of a sense of urgency, the arbitrary decisions, the dysfunctional parliament, the politicization of every aspect of our life.
Then one of my friends wrote, and I agreed with his narrative:
“In general,” he said, “non-experts should never occupy key positions in government agencies that call for trained, educated experts with bona fide scientific expertise.
This is important in any position where a scientific background and expertise are indispensable such as geology, geophysics, physics, chemistry and chemical engineering, industrial engineering, meteorology, civil engineering, aeronautics, biology, biochemistry, medical technologies, medicine, pharmacy, mathematics and computer science just to name a few.
But in Aruba the politicians in power always put non-experts in key positions and when the need arises call on foreign experts to provide very expensive advice and counsel on issues in which they cherry pick recommendations that best suit their political or personal corrupt financial gain agendas.
This is how we ended up with a streetcar (tram) in Oranjestad, the Green Corridor Aruba, the Watty Vos Boulevard, Eagle LNG Partners contracts, Hydrogen Valley Aruba, a severely flawed and deficient renovation and expansion of the Horacio Oduber Hospital and poorly managed integrated waste management, no sound environmental or nature conservation management policies and no clue at all about how to diversify our economy, because our entire educational system is geared towards producing non-experts with no expertise to guarantee that current politicians maintain the status quo.”
End of quote.
The government’s report on Vacation Rentals recently, comes to mind as the work of expensive foreign experts, which is meaningless.
Just as a reminder: The consumption reached a peak of 135.4 MW. In comparison, last year, in the hottest month of the year, September, consumption peaked at 137.6 MW. As a point of reference, in the cooler months, January for example, we only consumed 105.2 MW — the weather was fantastic November to January.
Megawatts are used to measure the output of a power plant or the amount of electricity required by an entire city. One megawatt (MW) = 1,000 kilowatts = 1,000,000 watts.
According to Wikipedia, 1 MW is enough to cover the needs of 400 to 750 homes. We have about 40.000 homes plus hotels, so the numbers make sense.
