TREVISO – More blackouts, more power surges, more homes, shops and businesses that found themselves without power with computers and appliances not working. Even the central post office in Piazza Vittoria found itself without power, with all the doors locked: «The office remained open, but not functioning – they explained from the central management – protests? No, people understood». In reality, outside the offices, there was a lot of protesting and complaining among those who were unable to make a withdrawal and those who had to give up paying a bill. A large portion of the city had big problems. The power went out shortly after 10 in the morning. The area that suddenly found itself without electricity was the part of the historic center between Piazza Vittoria, Viale Cadorna and the initial part of Corso del Popolo. And then problems were reported in the area around the Tenni stadium, where there are numerous apartment buildings with dozens of apartments, and Santa Maria del Rovere.
THE PROBLEM
“As also happened on Saturday – explains Sandro Zampese, Councilor for Public Works – there could have been an overload of the lines. It is not so much the Enel control units that are old, but the cables that connect to the homes. In these hot and muggy days, the use of air conditioners has increased dramatically. And this certainly has an impact”. Even the mayor Mario Conte speaks of overuse of air conditioners due to the heat, even if the strong storm yesterday afternoon contributed to significantly lowering the temperature. Enel, on the other hand, excludes overloads, but speaks of limited problems: “We wish to reassure citizens and the Administration – they say from the management – the electricity network managed by E-Distribuzione is functioning regularly and the loads are adequately and constantly managed without inconvenience for customers. The phenomena mentioned can be traced back to accidental failures which can affect the electrical network as well as any other technological component. In this specific case, these were phenomena linked to two power lines medium voltage (10,000 volts) but in less than 5 minutes the E-Distribuzione Operations Center re-powered most of the customers and only in some specific, extremely limited cases did the re-powering require the intervention of technicians who completed it in about 1 hour and a half. In parallel, additional operations were started that did not result in further suspensions of supply».
PROTESTS
In the meantime, the shopkeepers on Viale Cadorna paid a heavy price. “It was just after 10 o’clock,” says Alessandro Penzo Ajello, owner of the Filò bar-café with his brother Andrea, “when we heard a bang outside and then smoke coming out of a manhole. Some customers, sitting at the tables outside, thought the smoke was coming out of a car and called the Fire Department. I arrived with the fire engine, but they realized that the problem was something else. Then the Enel technicians arrived. For about 45 minutes, nothing worked here.”
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