ACENOR highlights effects of exclusion for two months in the measurement of rush hour

Share Post:

Fuente: Revista Electricidad, 21.04.20

La Association of Unregulated Energy Consumers (Acenor A.G.) destacó el impacto positivo que tiene la exclusión por dos meses (abril y mayo) de la medición de la hora punta para el sector de clientes libres, en el marco de la pandemia de Covid-19 que afecta a Chile. Rubén Sánchez, director ejecutivo de la asociación gremial, sostiene a Electricidad que esta reducción «trae una serie de beneficios a los clientes libres», entre las cuales menciona:

  • It increases the productive capacity by having greater flexibility in the processes and not having to sacrifice production or productivity to a greater or lesser extent, by not having, depending on the strategies used by each industry, to carry out production stoppages, or modify the the industry, or operation of the industry with reduced demand, or generate problems associated with instability and promote an increase in the failure rate, etc.
  • Lower economic costs to comply with commercial commitments, due to not having to use cutting edge trimming equipment (generator sets), or using more personnel for cutting edge control, and not having to change or shift work shifts during that period, and eventually be stocked to meet deliveries, etc.
  • Reduce the negative environmental impact, as many industrial facilities to mitigate the economic impact cut demand by using polluting generators, which generates polluting particulate matter emissions in industry, due to self-generation with diesel or fuel oil-6.
  • Avoid generating harmful effects on human resources, as many workers must mobilize during restricted hours to go and return from their homes to their workplace, or have to modify vacations urging them to coincide with the winter months, or increase the hours strategic staff work, or having to go to work on weekends to meet the stock of products and sales commitments, etc.

Sánchez also points out the measures that the sector has taken to face the coronavirus pandemic to ensure the health of its staff and its suppliers and ensure the continuity of the operation of its facilities, considering that several of the companies associated with the union are classified as Staple industries, so they cannot stop in the face of the crisis because they play essential roles to maintain the supply chain, giving peace of mind to the entire country:

  • Simplify operations and processes as much as possible, since it is not known exactly how long all this will last and production processes must be stabilized without making many changes, avoiding unnecessary stoppage of production plants despite having to work with the minimum of productive personnel face-to-face, since many workers must be sent to do a “home office”, especially those over 60 years of age, in addition to that others cannot go to their jobs due to local quarantine issues, and because these days medical licenses have increased , which makes it even more difficult to create working groups.
  • Work in person with the least amount of people daily in the plants and offices, except those considered essential, in operating shifts working up to 12 hours in 3 × 3 days, in order to avoid unnecessary travel of personnel from their homes to the work fronts and vice versa, and also to those who are present, apply 100% of the control measures established internally (reduction of personnel at work, temperature monitoring, greater distance, use of masks, participation in contingency plans, etc. ). In this sense, most of the supervisory personnel have been assigned to work from home.
  • Increase the teleworking facilities that companies provide to their workers, technicians and operators, strengthening their online service platforms and promoting greater remote work and digitization, increasing the operation of remote control and operation systems, and the internet of the things, in order to increase the safety of workers and their families in the face of the pandemic as much as possible.
  • Cancellation of staff participation in all events and face-to-face trips for seminars, meetings, work talks, etc., until a more suitable occasion.
  • Apply, together with the agribusiness sector, and manage to postpone the start of the peak control period of the SEN by two months, since having to modulate during peak hours means for free customers assigning a large number of people to stop the equipment before from 6:00 p.m., and then to put them into service at 10:00 p.m., which goes in the completely opposite direction to what is sought with the measures to mitigate the effects of Covid-19, especially with a shortage of personnel Any major problem that appears involves stopping the plants for safety.