SOUTH GOBI SUFFERS POWER, HEAT OUTAGE AMID BITTER COLD

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ULAANBAATAR 000072 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR EAP/CM AND EB/ESC STATE PASS AID/ANE D. WINSTON COMMERCE FOR ITA FOR ZHEN GONG CROSS MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORP WASHDC FOR F.REID E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ENRG EMIN PREL SENV OVIP MG SUBJECT: SOUTH GOBI SUFFERS POWER, HEAT OUTAGE AMID BITTER COLD ULAANBAATA 00000072 001.2 OF 002 ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: The failure of two transmission lines from the sole power plant in the southern Mongolian province of Omnogovi left around 35,000 residents without heat or electricity from February 4 through 7, as outside temperatures plummeted to -30F. A team of electricians from Ulaanbaatar was able to restore power in time for Lunar New Year,, but experts fear the repairs were simply a band-aid and that the transmission lines, weakened by repeated splicing and exposure to the elements, could fail again, especially as demand for electricity continues to rise. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (U) According to Mongolian Government officials, power and heat were restored yesterday to parts of the southern province of Omnogovi after the failure of two parallel 1,100-meter, 6-Kilovolt electric transmission cables that ran between the province's sole thermal power plant and a remote substation. The outage, which affected the provincial capital of Dalanzadgad as well as five rural counties (totaling 35,000 residents),left the hospital, schools and apartment blocks without heat or electricity on the eve of the Lunar New Year national holiday, with nighttime temperatures plunging to -30C or lower. ¶3. (U) Eyewitnesses tell of Dalanzadgad residents abandoning their frozen apartment blocks and moving into coal-stove heated gers (traditional nomadic tents, or "yurts") on the outskirts of the city. A diesel generator kicked into operation and provided some power (but not heat) to the provincial capital. (The generator, a Caterpillar, was reportedly guzzling 4 to 5 million tugriks worth of fuel per day, and going through four tons of fuel per hour.) ¶4. (SBU) Omnogovi's Governor Erdenebat was due to depart this week for a State Department-sponsored International Visitor Program related to governmental cooperation on natural resource extraction and federal/local land management of national parks, but canceled his travel plans in order to address the crisis. ¶5. (U) According to a contact at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, "a rescue team of electricians" was dispatched to the site and managed, late on the night of February 6, to restore power. Canadian-based Ivanhoe Mines, the largest non-government employer in the province, also rushed a team of engineers and technicians to the site to assist local authorities. ¶6. (SBU) One of Ivanhoe's electricians told us that numerous, shoddy splices in the two cables -- buried only 50 cm deep and thus vulnerable to frost movement -- overheated and popped after increasing electricity loads in the run-up to the holidays tripped the transformers, forcing breakers to be repeatedly reset. The increased load utilized both transformers, leaving no backup. The large, mobile jackhammer brought in to search for the lines (no schematics were available) damaged the lines further and forced additional repair splices. ¶7. (SBU) The GOM has so far shared little information about how the lines were repaired, but an Ivanhoe electrician believes that, given the limited material and relatively short time it took to restore power, the GOM's rescue-team of electricians must have spliced the line yet again. The quality of the earlier splicing work, combined with the increasing number of new repair splices, suggests that the lines could suffer another failure, especially if increased demand for electricity over the holidays strains the lines to the breaking point. Right now, it is likely that only one of the two lines is operational and the GOM has probably had to cut electric power to some outlying areas to shed load. ¶8. (SBU) If electricity usage increases over the holidays, another ULAANBAATA 00000072 002.2 OF 002 power failure is a real possibility, especially now that there is no back-up transformer available. If power is lost, Dalanzadgad's central boiler could go down and freeze up. Should the boiler not be powered down properly and drained adequately, it would become a mass of ice. Then there would be no heat. ¶9. (SBU) Since the start of this year, there have been other power outages associated with this Korean-built plant, which was built in 2000 and privatized in 2003. But apparently, this outage was bigger than any other. The GOM reportedly appropriated 560 million tugriks (US$475,000) for repairs and upgrades, but because only about half of that amount has been delivered, key repairs have not been carried out. Zappia