The oil-rich but crisis-ridden South American country of Venezuela suffered a massive blackout on March 7, affecting at least 18 of its 23 states. The power cut put the transport system in chaos and many facilities had to shut down in absence of power.
The blackout started at 1:05 a.m. and lasted until 6:00 a.m. In those five hours, the last electrolytic cells still operating in the only two aluminium-processing companies in the country Venalum and Alcasa went off. The Venalum smelter was operating with 59 cells while Alcasa was operating with only 14. Both the companies were already at their minimum operational capacities, and they stopped entirely on Friday, March 8th.
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Alcasa was founded in 1957 and Venalum was founded in 1978. The huge energy requirement for these smelters was fulfilled by the Guri hydroelectric complex in the Caroní River. But low-cost electricity, one of the main strengths of Guayana’s basic industries, turned into a flaw in times of revolution.
Venalum has an installed capacity of 905 cells; Alcasa, whose technology is more outdated, has 596. Venalum’s fifth line alone consumed 4.5 million kWh, equivalent to the monthly consumption of 90,000 homes, with a ratio of 1,500 kWh per month.
It is a known fact that if a cell spends more than two hours without power, the electrochemical process within stops and the aluminium metal at the bottom of the cell starts solidifying leading to a pot failure.
The collapse of the aluminium sector inflicted another blow to Guayana’s already battered economy and industrial productivity. The closure will also impact the operations in CVG Bauxilum and CVG Carbonorca, the first is focused on mining bauxite to turn it into alumina; the second, on producing carbon anodes for cells. This will also lead to a job loss of about 5000 empployees.
“It’s as if they’d dropped a bomb and destroyed all forms of life, everything is shut down, offices are in the dark, there’s a frightful silence,” wrote a local journalist María Ramírez Cabello after visiting the premises.
The blackout brought down the curtain to these historical smelters causing a final shutdown to the Venezuelan aluminium sector.
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