Electrical service is essential
for the development of
the economic activity of any country. Having a connection to
the service, however, is only part of
the story. Its continuity within established parameters, and its safe supply, is necessary. Addressing
the health emergency caused by COVID-19 in hospitals and health and food providers, and providing alternatives to
the mobility limitations imposed on citizens and companies in different countries,
for example, requires that electricity be available in
the required quantity, when required, and that its values are within
the required ranges. The cost would be
the risk of
the “power going out” in
the emergency room, when a patient is connected to a respirator, or of being burned by an abnormally high voltage, risking
the patient's life.
Of course, the hospital could (and should) have a backup generator for those fortuitous circumstances. However, its continued use would increase the hospital's operating costs significantly, diverting
C Level Executive List resources from other critical needs, such as masks, gowns, or a new cardiac activity monitor to replace those that have been in operation for several years. What does better quality mean? A reasonable level of quality arises from the optimization of an economic equation, where the costs of improving quality are balanced with the benefits of having it. Higher quality requires greater redundancy of equipment: in the event that one fails, another begins to operate in its place.
It also requires that they have greater capacity, so that they can absorb greater variations in demand. However, these investments have costs that must be transferred to the rates, and therefore the accessibility of the service is affected, especially for lower-income populations. Due to its public service characteristic and the fact that investments mature in the medium and long term, factors of different nature affect the planning of investments and the quality of the service. The first group refers to stochastic factors, such as weather events, which cause unscheduled interruptions, and unanticipated growth in demand that generates high performance requirements on equipment.
