"Conflict of interest": Did the conduct of the Electric Company lead to the series of malfunctions?

A widespread power outage occurred this morning (Thursday) surprisingly in several centers in Israel at the same time. The electric company hastened to issue a statement that the source of the problem was a fault at the power plant in Haifa and reassured that it would be fixed within a few minutes. At the same time, the cyber system immediately clarified that there is no indication of a cyber attack. After a while, the electricity came back on.

Due to a technical fault: widespread power outage throughout the country

Shaul Goldshein, CEO of the "Nega" company, a government company for the management of electrical systems, spoke this evening (Thursday) with Liat Ron and Aryeh Malinyak on their show on 103FM, and commented on the unusual event. "We are guilty, you can look at us and we are the address in this case. Our systems detected the serious malfunction of the electrical system, a technical malfunction that occurred at the station itself in Haifa," he noted.

He also added that "our automatic system immediately cut off consumers in order to let the frequency go back up, because when growth goes down, the frequency goes straight up, this was the automatic operation. All in all, the problem was dealt with in about half an hour. It's something that probably happens and will happen, it's not a drama." .

He sought to clarify: "Today, most of the production is no longer owned by the electric company. Already over 50%, it is private production. All over the world, by the way. So as soon as you allow an electric company, which has its own interests because it produces, to operate stations that deal with In private production, a situation of conflict of interests is created here."

Goldshein presented an optimistic forecast regarding the future situation: "Everything was taken care of in less than half an hour. Only the Haifa station, currently the electric company is repairing it, but in the meantime, because we have enough reserve, then there are enough other stations that are being completed. There is no fear of another malfunction of this kind In the good days."