Utility Rolls With Punches in Colombia

The semicircle of computers and control panels facing a movie-size screen looks at first glance like the bridge of the starship Enterprise. But the screen gives it away.

Instead of galaxies or exotic space travelers, it shows a complex electrical diagram--a lighted, colored-coded technical map of the electrical grid that supplies energy to about 80% of Colombians. Green lines are working; blue lines aren’t.

The government, which owns the electrical distribution company known by the initials ISA, created this control center in preparation for the now-mythic Y2K bug. For the past two months, it has served a purpose its designers never anticipated.

The control center has kept the electricity flowing as Marxist rebels have cut off power lines linked to about 25% of this country’s electrical energy supply. Here, engineers have rerouted electricity around the growing number of blue lines and designated where emergency pylons should be installed to turn blue lines back to green, thus avoiding long blackouts or rationing--at least so far.

“It is a serious problem, but we have been managing it,” said Javier Gutierrez, general manager of ISA.

Still, the system is strained, public officials and leaders of the electrical workers union warn. The available emergency pylons, which have kept the system going because they can be erected in two days, are all in use, according to union leaders. The lines that connect the coastal and Andean grids have been cut off, so the two systems can no longer share energy in an emergency.

“If this goes on, people have to prepare for rationing and for a tariff increase,” predicted Carlos Caballero, the minister of mines and energy.

For the first time in more than three decades of guerrilla war, insurgents began to systematically attack this nation’s electrical infrastructure 11 months ago, and attacks have intensified in the past two months. Rebels blew up more pylons in the first six weeks of 2000 than they did in all of 1996.

The destruction is part of a strategy to force the government to go along with rebel demands for a demilitarized zone to conduct peace talks. The National Liberation Army, or ELN, Colombia’s second-largest rebel group, has demanded a zone similar to the one ceded in November 1998 to the larger Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

Because of problems in the FARC-controlled area and protests from peasants living in one of the areas being considered as a zone for the ELN talks, the government has been reluctant to create a second zone. In response, the ELN has made its military prowess felt through actions such as hijacking an airplane last year and blocking highways in recent weeks.

But the longest-term damage is directed at the electrical distribution companies: ISA and six smaller, regional firms that also are government-owned. About 300 pylons valued at $50,000 each have been destroyed, for total damage of $15 million, Caballero said.

Many of the destroyed pylons are on lines that bring cheaper hydroelectric power onto the grid, forcing ISA to rely more on expensive thermal energy. Rebel destruction has raised extra operating costs--those normally caused by rerouting electricity while a plant is being repaired, for example--300% since December. Now total additional costs run at $734,000 a day.

Consumers are beginning to notice. The light-rail metro system here, a symbol of civic pride, was stalled for two hours after 23 towers were blown up Feb. 3. Two weeks before, the city suffered a two-hour blackout, and towns in more remote areas were without electricity for up to two days.

For now, the rebels have agreed to halt the attacks while they try to work with the government to find a place to hold peace talks.

Still, the demonstration of the system’s vulnerability has come at a bad time. Under the terms of an agreement with the International Monetary Fund, Colombia is committed to selling ISA to private investors.

Caballero’s hope is that, by keeping the system going despite the attacks, ISA will have demonstrated that it is a strong company with skilled technicians and top-notch technology. “People don’t know the quality of the energy sector we have,” he said.