Electricity: regulation and reality
In the neighborhood where I live, in the southern part of the city of São Paulo (Brazil), unplanned interruptions in the supply of electricity are measured at more than 100 hours per year.
The regulation establishes a limit of around 10% of these interruptions that occur systematically, year after year, in my neighbourhood.
The main reason for this situation is the lack of “cleaning” of the areas around the medium and low voltage networks. Branches and trees have a history of falling onto the networks and causing interruptions.
The most disturbing aspect is the effort of residents to encourage the local concessionaire (high voltage network) and the city government (low voltage network) to “clean” the networks to prevent what always happens.
But, despite what is established in the regulation, and the good/proven engineering practices establish the result is always the same, year after year. This is a situation of underdevelopment.
On paper, everything is beautiful, as it should be. In practice, it is very different. Do we have a chance to learn and change or will we continue as we have for decades?
