utilities

Residents rebuff electrical workers

Workers from Unión Fenosa and Edemet Edechi tried to disconnect illegal hook-ups to power lines.

Two people have died making the illegal connections in the El Progreso community.

LA PRENSA/Virgilio De León

Out: Residents banned together to repel electric workers.1096004

Residents of El Progreso No. 4, in the district of La Chorrera, yesterday prevented officials from electrical companies Unión Fenosa and Edemet Edechi from cutting illegal connections to power lines.

The companies sent teams of employees into the community to detect the illegal connections and remove them, but they were repulsed by the residents of the community, which consists primarily of squatters.

The company had been looking at ways to charge people in the area for service, but apparently has not been able to come up with a solution to the issue.

Resident Carlos Chávez said people in the community are upset that the companies are planning to cut off service to residents without coming up with a plan for them to legally obtain electricity.

Two people have died in recent years while trying to connect to the power system illegally.

Unión Fenosa spokeswoman Judy Meana said that such illegal connections pose a danger to the people living in the area, and that the companies’ employees were simply trying to eliminate that risk. She added that they expect to devise a plan in the near future in which houses in the neighborhood can be legally hooked up to the system.