Since last Sunday, Almuñécar and La Herradura have been suffering power outages, which is a reoccuring problem each summer, it seems.

At first, the finger was pointed at a fault in the San Cristóbal area but it has been much wider than that — and there has been no official reason explanation given.

Yes, the Town Hall has asked for an explanation from the electricity-utility company, Endesa and suggested that the problem is caused by overloading, causing a chain-reaction power failure.

With the town crammed with tourists, if you are a business such as a restaurant or bar, the last thing you want it to be left in the dark, literally: forget the aircon; you can’t even wheel out an old fashion fan. Food temperatures goes up in refrigerated display cabinets.

It’s just as bad for residents in blocks of flats, because the lifts no longer function and God forbid that you get trapped in one when the power goes down.

So what does Endesa say? The problem is that the summer population explodes and the power network gets overwhelmed. Logical. Trouble is, with a peak summer population of over 120,000 instead of the 27,000 population most of the year, you can’t provide a power grid for this bloated population from the 15th of July to the 15th of August.

That’s the problem with mobile-phone coverage, too; the cells in the phone masts are insufficient for the huge increase in phone-activity demand.

Parking? Well, that really is shooting yourself in the foot when it comes to shutting town the town’s largest parking facility, Plaza Blas Infante (Friday-Market Square) for three weeks in August.

By the way, there still has been no official explanation why the whole country went down for around 24 hours a month or two back.

(Editorial: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)

Keywords: Power Outage, Summer Population, Endesa, Phone Coverage, Parking

news, editorial, andalucia, granada, costa tropical, almunecar/herradura, power outage, summer population, endesa, phone coverage, parking

Reader’s comment: “With the abundance of free power available (from the sun) there is absolutely no excuse for not installing more solar panels both on commercial and residential properties; that way there will be adequate power available to run everything we need. The problem arises as it gets dark, the source of power is gone, but everyone is turning on lighting, cooking, using air conditioning etc. and putting an additional drain on the grid. If sufficient battery storage is added to each solar installation (or at central/strategic locations) there should then be enough power to last through the night, problem solved. With prices falling for solar equipment, the only problem is lethargy (or being cynical pressure from vested interests that don’t want solar power). One electricity supplier was recently offering free electricity for two years to anyone purchasing a solar installation, unfortunately they were not offering a battery backup option (wonder why?).” – George