The inhabitants who benefit from the Solquin electrical circuit, which covers the Amuay and Jayana communities of the Los Taques municipality in the Paraguaná Peninsula, spend up to three continuous days without electricity.
By Irene Revilla / Correspondent la patilla.com
These sectors are located around the renowned Paraguaná Wind Farm. Inevitably, on the way home, they can see the promise of an optimal electrical service that they have not never experienced. Living right next to the electrical windmill park that was built to provide renewable energy through the strong constant winds characteristic of the area, this being the third project of this type in Venezuela, has not become a guarantee to receive an efficient electrical service.
In reality, these communities have not developed as they would have ideally, since they are located on the way to the main beaches of the municipality where tourism prevails, and also where the largest electrical project in the state of Falcón was built. Only the main avenue is paved, there are no parks or plazas, and the drinking water service is also deficient.
Inhabitants of these areas say that they can spend up to three days without electricity and have even gone months without water. This week was an example of this: from Sunday, September 15th, to Wednesday, September 17th, they endured a power outage and never got information about what was happening.
“On Saturday, the whole day went by and sometime during the night it came and lasted only about 15 minutes. It went away again on Sunday all day. On Monday the same, on Tuesday it came for a while and went away again, and on Wednesday the whole day without electricity. Not even the street leaders come out to help with the problems we live with day to day with the Zolquin circuit,” said a neighbor who preferred not to be identified.
Hellish heat
He also said that high temperatures raise blood pressure in older adults, while children hope to drink something cold to scare away the heat, but with three days without electricity it is impossible to get something to cool off.
“Most have lost their food, especially fishermen who have had to throw away their catch in bad condition. We merchants are constantly losing, because there are several merchants whose refrigerated products have become spoiled and, who is responsible for that? But to collect taxes they are active, they are waiting for whom to fine and close the businesses because they do not comply with their payment and do not realize the king of electric service they provide us,” said another resident of the area who is a retailer.
The inhabitants of the area assure that many times they (the government) have promised to improve the service and put the Paraguaná Wind Farm into operation, but to date the people do not know its status, since no information is given to those who live in the communities, so those who have their houses there try to survive.
“Here in all these sectors there are elderly people, some with serious health problems, who need to be in a room with the air conditioning on, especially these days when the heat is getting stronger every day. Children also suffer from this problem, especially newborns. In short, we all suffer from this problem that we live day after day and the worst thing is that nobody says anything, not the people of the communes, nor Corpoelec (the national electricity monopoly), nor the mayor’s office,” said a merchant who preferred to remain anonymous, otherwise they would close his store.
Wind Farm, a promise from Chávez
The Paraguaná Wind Farm is one of the three projects that were approved for Venezuela in the name of renewable energy. The other two would be in Zulia and Nueva Esparta.
The Paraguaná project is managed by Corpoelec and Petróleos de Venezuela, made up of 27 turbines and its construction approved in 2006 to build more than 50 wind turbines in an area of 921 hectares, each of which would contribute to the National Electric System (SEN) with a total of 49 megawatts.
The project served as a flagship for the generation of clean electric energy in 2006 and would supply 33,000 homes, but the daily reality of the people of Paraguaná shows that the electric service is still deficient.
During the presidential election campaign, Nicolás Maduro visited the Los Taques municipality and videos recorded how the communities asked him to put the Paraguaná Wind Farm into operation and also the Los Taques desalination plant, which is the largest in the state of Falcón.
At the same event, he ordered the ministers of Water and Energy to “approach” Falcón. He told the people that within 40 days both projects would be up and running and respond to the needs of the people.
In July 2024, the Minister of Popular Power for Electric Energy, Jorge Márquez, together with the governor of Falcón, Víctor Clark, reported that 38 wind turbines were put into operation and that 14 remained stalled that would start operating in the coming months. However, there have been no improvements in the service, since blackouts and electrical fluctuations are daily events.
A press release from Corpoelec, published on July 20th of this year, says that the operation of the 38 wind turbines generates 1.2 megawatts in each wind turbine. “That is to say, we are generating approximately between 40 and 50 megawatts more for the National Electric System.”
They also said that they held meetings with the organized people to make a work plan that allows safeguarding the security and operation of this infrastructure.