Should’ves and could’ves of nationwide blackout

Santo Domingo.- Saturday’s nationwide power outage stemmed from a lack of coordination of the national power grid’s (SENI) protection and frequency regulation system which should’ve balanced the deficit resulting from the explosion and subsequent fire at a substation of the EGE Itabo plant.

The scenario is from several energy sector experts who say caused the damage sustained in the power plant wasn’t enough to unleash a power outage, "regardless of whether the event was due to lack of maintenance or not," as the State-owned electric utility (CDEEE) affirms.

Quoted by eldia.com.do, former electricity superintendent Francisco Mendez; expert Bernardo Castellanos and Santo Domingo State University (UASD) Energy Institute president Jose Luis Moreno San Juan agree that the poor coordination requires a thorough review of protocol, to avert similar blackouts

"If everything had been calibrated, from the point of view of protection systems coordination the blackout shouldn’t have occurred, what happened is that the system didn’t work as it should’ve worked," said San Juan.

Mendez said if the failure at Itabo dragged the entire grid with it it was because of an improper system maintenance policy. "We will wait for the response of the regulator to see why the event occurred, but that requires us to review the entire protocol to prevent no blackouts."