URU - 2012 - #034 - SERIE - NATIONAL ELECTRIC COMPANY (UTE) CENTENARY

Uruguay - 2012 - 100 Years of National Electric Company (UTE)

Options:

SERIE --- 4,40 EUR
STAMP 1 --- 2,60 EUR
STAMP 2 --- 2,60 EUR
STAMP 3 --- 2,60 EUR
STAMP 4 --- 2,60 EUR
SE-TENANT WITHOUT VIGNETTES --- 4,60 EUR
SE-TENANT WITH VIGNETTE 1 - 4 BELOW --- 5,60 EUR
SE-TENANT WITH VIGNETTE 1 - 4 ABOVE --- 5,60 EUR
SE-TENANT WITH VIGNETTE 5 - 8 BELOW --- 5,60 EUR
SE-TENANT WITH VIGNETTE 5 - 8 ABOVE --- 5,60 EUR
BLOCK --- 12,50 EUR
FDC not Sent WITHOUT VIGNETTES --- 6,00 EUR
FDC not Sent WITH VIGNETTE 1 - 4 ABOVE --- 7,00 EUR
FDC not Sent WITH VIGNETTE 5 - 8 ABOVE --- 7,00 EUR
FDC Sent on First Day WITH VIGNETTE 1 - 4 BELOW --- 9,00 EUR ( NOT AVAILABLE, ALREADY SOLD )
FDC Circulated WITHOUT VIGNETTES --- 7,00 EUR
FDC Circulated WITH VIGNETTE 1 - 4 BELOW --- 8,00 EUR
FDC Circulated WITH VIGNETTE 5 - 8 ABOVE --- 8,00 EUR
COVER Sent on First Day --- 7,00 EUR

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Issue information:

Country: Uruguay
Date: October 31th, 2012
Printed: 15.000 copies of each one

Stamp Shape and Size: All Stamps and vignettes Rectangular [39 mm. x 27 mm.], size extended for continuous design in se-tenant
Perforation: Circular
Gum: Water Activated

Block Configuration: 3 series [3 x 1], 12 stamps [3 x 4], and 8 vignettes
[ [STAMP 1, STAMP 2, STAMP 3, STAMP 4]
[VIGNETTE 1, VIGNETTE 2, VIGNETTE 3, VIGNETTE 4]
[STAMP 1, STAMP 2, STAMP 3, STAMP 4]
[VIGNETTE 5, VIGNETTE 6, VIGNETTE 7, VIGNETTE 8]
[STAMP 1, STAMP 2, STAMP 3, STAMP 4]
Block Shape and Size: Rectangular [187 mm. x 175 mm.]

FDC Type: Normal
FDC Shape and Size: Rectangular [235 mm. x 105 mm.]
Cover Shape and Size: Rectangular [237 mm. x 159 mm.]

Catalogue information:

Michel: No Data Available
Ivert: No Data Available
Scott: No Data Available
Stanley & Gibbons: No Data Available

Topics:

Issue:

This serie of 4 stamps it was issued to commemorate the 100 Years of the creation of "Administración Nacional de Usinas y Trasmisiones Eléctricas (UTE)", that in english means "National Administration of Electric Plants and Transmission", that is the state company, and the unique one, that provides electric energy in Uruguay.

The design of the serie, in particular, the design of the block, is rather peculiar. The serie is presented in a horizontal stripe with a continuous design showing relevant buildings of the companay, and it is repeated three times in the block, with the particularity that between each stripe there is a row of vignettes, all different ones, that includes four types of light bulbs in the first vignette row, and four classes of electric meters in the second one. In both row of vignettes the items shown, light bulbs and electric meters, are ordered from older to newer ones, when you see them from left to right.

The date of issue was a few days after the centenary of the company, more precisely ten days later, because, although the onset of electrical activity in Uruguay goes back to 1886 when Don Marcelino Diaz and Garcia founded the company called "La Uruguayana", it was not until October 21st of 1912, that a legislation was enacted to gave rise to this State Company at that time called "Administración General de las Usinas Eléctricas del Estado", in english "General Administration of State's power plants" giving it an unlimited in time monopoly on electricity supply covering the whole country.

Later, in 1931, he was granted to the firm a new monopoly: the one for telephone communications by wire, and the company was renamed to "Administración General de las Usinas y Teléfonos del Estado", that in english means: "General Administration of State's power plants and telephones".

It remains with this name until 1974, that following the creation of the National Company of Telecomunications "Administración Nacional de TELecomunicaciones (ANTEL), UTE competence returned to the original and its acronym return to the meaning "National Administration of Electric Plants and Transmission."

As it is the main product of the company being honoured, the serie is dedicated to the electric power, and it shows a good view of the main elements of this industry, perhaps a bit focused in the production that is shown in three of the four stamps, ilustrating the hydroelectric dams with the "Rincón de Baygorria" one, the wind turbines with the wind farms of "Parque eólico Emanuelle Cambilargiu", and oil combustion ones with "Central Jose Batlle y Ordoñez".

Then, for the items chosen to ilustrate electric energy, another topics that could be found in all or almost all the stamps of the serie are science and engineering, in particular there is a strong relation with renewable sources, that could be included in a wider ecology. Also different tipe of buildings are shown, then work as electricist is presented, helmet as a security issue, and even nature, with sky and clouds in the mayority of the stamps.

Finally, the desing of the serie is decorated with the logo of the centenary celebration, a kind of wired signature of number 100, the logotype of the company, and also its motto "La energía que nos une", which means "The energy that bind us together", are included in all the stamps and vignettes of the serie.

Stamp 1:

The first stamp shows in the foreground, two electricians working in a pylon or a high voltage tower, one of them working climbed in the pylow itself, and the other standing in the compartment of the truck mounted hydraulic platforms that raised them to the top of the pylon.

Both operators are wearing working uniforms, including helmets, protection masks, and gloves.

Then, on background it could be seen the hydroelectric dam called "Rincón de Baygorria", placed in the river "Negro".

This hydroelectric dam, is property of UTE since it was inaugurated on July 8, 1960, and it has a maximum power of 108 MVA.

It is located on the course of river "Negro", at 307 km from it mouth in River "Uruguay", that is in the boundaries between the departments of "Durazno" and "Rio Negro". It lies 266 km from the city of Montevideo, traveling 220 km by Route 5 and then 44 km on Route 4.

It building is the result of decades of studies for hydroelectric use of river "Negro", which began in 1904 by the engineer Victor Sudriers, in wich he also worked as a consultant, the german engineer Adolfo Ludin, author of the dam "Rincón del Bonete", also placed in river "Negro".

Victor Sudriers, was born in 1874 and passed away in 1958, was an engineer in bridges and roads graduated in 1895 in the state university of Uruguay, and it was known as a professional not only for being the author of "Rincón de Byagorria" dam, also for many brides that were designed by him, and also for his work in the railway sector.

Also, it was a politician from "Partido Colorado" political party, being deputy for this sector from 1906 to 1911, and Minister of Public Works from 1911 to 1912.

Then Adolfo Ludín, was born in December 27th, 1874 in Germany, and passed away in August 4th, 1958, and was an hydraulic engineer graduated in 1904 and having his doctorate in 1910.

He worked in many countries, not only several in Germany, and the ones in Uruguay already mentioned, also in Finland, Georgia, Azerbaijan, the country previously named Yugoslavia, Iran, Pakistanm, and Japan.

Finally, the building of this hydroelectric dam generate the location of "Baygorria", this place was founded during the decade of 1950, in order that the workers of the dam has a place to live, and did not extend his population much more, as there lives only the workers of the dam, and the ones from a company that breeds sturgeon..

Actually population of Baygorria is only 161, according to a census done on 2011.

Stamp 2:

The desing of the second stamp is rather simple, it shows mainly the complex metal structure of a high voltage tower, imposing its presence in a beautiful sunny sky.

The image is completed with a worker, probably an engineer, looking at the structure, and holding a plan in his hands.

The man is wearing a helmet, and has beard in his face.

Stamp 3:

The third stamp focus in the renewable energy generation using wind turbines, and it shows a zoom in detail of one turbine in foreground and in the background the wind farm called "Parque Eólico Emanuelle Cambilargiu", built in "Sierra de los Caracoles", in english "Sierra of the Snails", a small hills range located in the city of San Carlos, in the departament of Maldonado.

A wind turbine is a device that converts kinetic energy from the wind, also called wind energy, into mechanical energy; a process known as wind power. If the mechanical energy is used to produce electricity, the device may be called a wind turbine or wind power plant.

The result of over a millennium of windmill development and modern engineering, today's wind turbines are manufactured in a wide range of vertical and horizontal axis types. The smallest turbines are used for applications such as battery charging or auxiliary power on boats; while large grid-connected arrays of turbines are becoming an increasingly important source of wind power-produced commercial electricity.

Windmills were used in Persia (present-day Iran) as early as 200 B.C. The windwheel of Heron of Alexandria marks one of the first known instances of wind powering a machine in history. However, the first known practical windmills were built in Sistan, a region between Afghanistan and Iran, from the 7th century. These "Panemone" were vertical axle windmills, which had long vertical driveshafts with rectangular blades. Made of six to twelve sails covered in reed matting or cloth material, these windmills were used to grind grain or draw up water, and were used in the gristmilling and sugarcane industries.

Windmills first appeared in Europe during the middle ages. The first historical records of their use in England date to the 11th or 12th centuries and there are reports of German crusaders taking their windmill-making skills to Syria around 1190. By the 14th century, Dutch windmills were in use to drain areas of the Rhine delta.

The first electricity-generating wind turbine was a battery charging machine installed in July 1887 by Scottish academic James Blyth to light his holiday home in Marykirk, Scotland. Some months later American inventor Charles F Brush built the first automatically operated wind turbine for electricity production in Cleveland, Ohio. Although Blyth's turbine was considered uneconomical in the United Kingdom electricity generation by wind turbines was more cost effective in countries with widely scattered populations.

In Denmark by 1900, there were about 2500 windmills for mechanical loads such as pumps and mills, producing an estimated combined peak power of about 30 MW. The largest machines were on 24-metre (79 ft) towers with four-bladed 23-metre (75 ft) diameter rotors. By 1908 there were 72 wind-driven electric generators operating in the US from 5 kW to 25 kW. Around the time of World War I, American windmill makers were producing 100,000 farm windmills each year, mostly for water-pumping. By the 1930s, wind generators for electricity were common on farms, mostly in the United States where distribution systems had not yet been installed. In this period, high-tensile steel was cheap, and the generators were placed atop prefabricated open steel lattice towers.

A forerunner of modern horizontal-axis wind generators was in service at Yalta, Soviet Ukraine in the USSR in 1931. This was a 100 kW generator on a 30-metre (98 ft) tower, connected to the local 6.3 kV distribution system. It was reported to have an annual capacity factor of 32 per cent, not much different from current wind machines. In the fall of 1941, the first megawatt-class wind turbine was synchronized to a utility grid in Vermont. The Smith-Putnam wind turbine only ran for 1,100 hours before suffering a critical failure. The unit was not repaired because of shortage of materials during the war.

The first utility grid-connected wind turbine to operate in the UK was built by John Brown & Company in 1951 in the Orkney Islands.

As of 2012, Danish company Vestas is the world's biggest wind-turbine manufacturer.

Wind turbines can rotate about either a horizontal or a vertical axis, the former being both older and more common, and the one shown in the stamp because are the one used in the wind farm mentioned, and the ones selected for using wind power in all the country.

Horizontal-axis wind turbines (HAWT) have the main rotor shaft and electrical generator at the top of a tower, and must be pointed into the wind. Small turbines are pointed by a simple wind vane, while large turbines generally use a wind sensor coupled with a servo motor. Most have a gearbox, which turns the slow rotation of the blades into a quicker rotation that is more suitable to drive an electrical generator.

Turbines used in wind farms for commercial production of electric power are usually three-bladed and pointed into the wind by computer-controlled motors. These have high tip speeds of over 320 km/h (200 mph), high efficiency, and low torque ripple, which contribute to good reliability. The blades are usually colored white for daytime visibility by aircraft and range in length from 20 to 40 metres (66 to 130 ft) or more. The tubular steel towers range from 60 to 90 metres (200 to 300 ft) tall. The blades rotate at 10 to 22 revolutions per minute. At 22 rotations per minute the tip speed exceeds 90 metres per second (300 ft/s). A gear box is commonly used for stepping up the speed of the generator, although designs may also use direct drive of an annular generator. Some models operate at constant speed, but more energy can be collected by variable-speed turbines which use a solid-state power converter to interface to the transmission system. All turbines are equipped with protective features to avoid damage at high wind speeds, by feathering the blades into the wind which ceases their rotation, supplemented by brakes.

The wind farm depicted in the stamp, "Parque Eólico Emanuelle Cambilargiu", it is a small one, compared to worldwide ones, as it has a current capacity of 20 MW. , is the only one own by UTE, however it is not only one placed in Uruguay that have a few ones owned by non-govermental companies reaching a total current capacity of 52 MW, and a lot of projects of new on that will produce almost 1 GW (1.000 MW.) of electric energy.

This wind farm is composed by 10 wind turbines of the Company Vestas model V80, with a tower of 67 mts, and blades of 40 mts, that produces a maximum height of 107 mts when one blade pointing in up direction, and having a complete weight of the structure of 225 tons.

The blades operates at a speed of 12 to 18 rpm, and the power conversor have a mutliplier of 100 to 1.

The farm was set up in August of 2008 with only 5 wind turbines, it started to produce energy in an industrial way on February 5th, 2009, and it was officially inaugurated on May 27th by the president of Uruguay Dr. Tabaré Vázquez, exactly one year after this inauguration, the other 5 wind turbines were set up and generating energy reaching the actual maximum capacity of the wind farm.

The name of the wind farm honours the uruguayan engineer Emanuelle Cambilargiu, that was the pioneer in the study of wind power, making studies in this field since 1951, and having done wind measurements for energy purpose since the decade of 1960, when he was chief of the "Laboratorio de Aerodinámica del Instituto de Máquinas", in english "Aerodynamics Laboratory of the Institute of Machines", of the Engineer faculty of Goverment University, institute now known as "Instituto de Mecánica de los Fluidos e Ingeniería Ambiental (IMFIA)", that could be translated in english to "Institute of Fluid Mechanics and Environmental Engineering".

San Carlos is also the name of the municipality to which the city belongs.

"Sierra de los Caracoles" is a hills range located at north of San Carlos city by route 39 and is a nice place for eco-turism as it forsest and streams flowing down from the mountains to the prairie shares beautiful views that extend to the ocean, and also is the natural habitat, and almost the unique place, to see some rare animal species of the zone, as the birds: "Mirlo Charrúa" (Gnorimopsar chopi), "Viudita Negra Copetona" (Knipolegus lophotes), "Viudita Colorada" (Hirundinea ferruginea), and also you could see the birds "Cuervo Cabeza Roja" (Cathartes aura), and some "Águila Mora" (Geranoaetus melanoleucus). Then, it is a good place too to see the mamals: "Guazubirá " (Mazama gouazoubira), and "Margay" (Leopardus wiedii).

San Carlos is a city in the Maldonado Department of southern Uruguay. It is located on Route 39, 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) south of its intersection with Route 9 and about 13.5 kilometres (8.4 mi) north of the center of the department capital city of Maldonado. The stream Arroyo San Carlos flows along the east limits of the city and the park and neighbourhood of Parque Medina is situated across it.

It was founded on October 1763 by the Spanish Governor Pedro Antonio de Cevallos, which is known because of conquering "Colonia del Sacramento" twice, to discourage the foundation of Portuguese settlements in the region. Its name is originated from that of the King of Spain at the time, Charles III.

It had acquired the status of "Villa" (town) before the Independence of Uruguay, which was elevated to "Ciudad" (city) on 18 December 1929 by the Act of Ley Nº 8.559.

In 2011, San Carlos had a population of 27,471, that makes it the second largest city in Maldonado Department after the capital city of Maldonado..

It is considered to be the agropecuarian centre of the region.

The Department "Maldonado", with an area of 4,793 km2 (1,851 sq mi) and 161,571 inhabitants, is located to the southeast of Uruguay, and its capital is the city of Maldonado.

The origin of its name can be traced back to the year 1530, with the return to Spain of Sebastian Cabot, who had left the continent earlier that year, in January, leaving Lieutenant Francisco Maldonado near Maldonado's bay. The strategic importance of that bay led to the decision by Montevideo's governor Joaquin de Viana to build a settlement in Portezuelo (near the Laguna del Diario) in 1755. Two years later, in 1757, a civil and military settlement was founded around the bay and in the neighbouring Gorriti Island. Other settlements soon followed in the area, with the intention of limiting the Portuguese expansion. In 1828, the department of Maldonado was created, containing as well the territories now belonging to the department of Rocha, and most of Lavalleja.

Stamp 4:

The last stamp of the serie divides it focus in three topics, one is in the operators, now in a less technical look than the electrician of the first stamp, however, still clearly out of office work, this topic is tackled in the design with the woman wearing helmet. The two other topics presented in the stamp are the "Palacio de la Luz" building, the headquarter of UTE, and the oil combustion thermal power station "Central Jose Batlle y Ordoñez".

The building "Palacio de la Luz" was designed by uruguayan architect Román Fresnedo in 1948, and inaugurated on August 22nd, 1951.

Román Fresnedo, the architect, who was an official of UTE, devised a building with simple but majestic lines, that not only its architecture, that placed all offices outside, avoiding the "light wells" was amazing for the time, also their equipment and technology were to admire for that time, were was not common the air conditioning system, or soundproof environments by acoustic liners. However, what had left all citizen of Montevideo of "open mouth" was his singular entry system, with glass doors that openend automatically when someone was nearby the door.

The building built in the neighbourghood of "La Aguada" also included an impressive mural in his entrance hall, developed by artist Eduardo Yepes, a work which has a total of 230 square meters and took the plastic expression of a lighting bolt.

In the dawn of August 13th, 1993, a terrible fire affected the highest floors of the buildin, and killed five women of the cleaning service, and thanks to a hitherto unprecedented in Uruguay helicopter rescue made the lives of five other persons who were trapped on the roof of the building were saved.

Nowadays the "Palacio de la luz" is visited by 1.500 people daily, and is a referent building of Uruguayan Capital.

The last item depicted in the stamp is oil combustion thermal power station "Central Jose Batlle y Ordoñez", named in that way honouring the former Uruguayan President "José Batlle y Ordoñez", is located at a few hundred of metters far from the already mentioned "El palacio de la luz" building in the "Aguada" neighbourhood of Montevideo, and it produces 394 MVA of electric power by four of the six steam turbogenerators which compose the power station, the older two ones are already disabled.

Works in order to build the "Central José Batlle y Ordoñez" power station were initiated on February 13, 1930, and it enter in service its first generating unit of 25 MW on June 1st, 1931. Originally, the station consisted of two 25 MW turbogenerator each fed by steam from eight boilers that burn coal unloaded from ships docked at the pier of the plant.

In 1955 the power station expands with the installation of units 3 and 4, both of 50 MW, fueled by three dual fuel boilers: coal and fuel oil. Then, in 1970 it was added the fifth unit of 80 MW, and in 1976 the sixth unit of 125 MW. Also, units 1 and 2 of the Central Batlle were disable during this period of time.

The Central works today in the steam cycle. The boilers generate steam which is superheated therein and sent to the turbine which transforms the heat energy of the steam (enthalpy) into mechanical energy. This is converted into electrical energy by alternators, and this energy is delivered to the station E of the ring of Montevideo. The performance of this operation is of the order of 30 to 35% since the beginning of the process.

The newer three steam generators of the four running units were made by the italian company "Franco Tosi", and the older one is made by United States one "Babcock & Wilcox". Then, the turbogenerators of all units were provided by the Swiss group of electrical engineering companies "Brown Boveri".

José Pablo Torcuato Batlle y Ordóñez born on May 21, 1856 and passed away on October 20, 1929, was the president of Uruguay in 1899 (interim), then from 1903 until 1907 and for a further term from 1911 to 1915. He was the son of former president, Lorenzo Batlle y Grau, and also his children César, Rafael and Lorenzo Batlle Pacheco were actively engaged in politics. Later, was the uncle of another Uruguayan president, Luis Batlle Berres and the great-uncle of another Uruguayan president, Jorge Batlle.

He and his family are some of the most prominent members of the Colorado Party. He was a prominent journalist, who founded El Día in 1886. As president, Battle presided over the passage of a wide range of reforms in areas such as social security and working conditions.

During Batlle's second term, he began a new movement and referred to as Batllismo: concerted state action against foreign economic imperialism. During this time he fought for such things as unemployment compensation (1914), eight-hour workdays (1915), and universal suffrage. All of this brought a great government involvement into the economy. Private monopolies were turned into government monopolies and tariffs were imposed on foreign products, including machinery and raw material imports. The growth of the meat processing industry stimulated the livestock industry, Uruguay's main source of wealth.

Education started a process of great expansion since the mid-to-late 19th century. It became the key to success for the middle class community. The state approved free high school education and created more high schools through the country. The university was also opened to women, and the enrollment increased throughout the country.

Block:

The design of the block have been already described, and it main particularity is the two row of vignettes that are between the stripes of stamps that compose the serie, all of these vignettes are different, and in each one they shows a type of light bulb in the first vignette row, and a class of electric meter in the second one. As also mentioned, in both row of vignettes the items shown, light bulbs and electric meters, are ordered from older to newer ones, when you see them from left to right.

The vignette row that shows lighting bulbs is composed by three vignettes with incandescent light bulbs, and the last one shows a new fluorescent low power consuption lamp.

Finally, the block is decorated with four icons of lighting bulbs, to show the colours used in block printing.

FDC:

The Cancelation of the FDC offers a nice design in which the logo of the centenary of UTE resembles the incandescent filament of the lighting bulb in which is placed. The UTE logo and its motto also compose the lighting bulb design.

If you consider that there are another topics in this stamp, that were not spot in this review, you are encouraged to telling me about them, so please do not hesitate to post a comment. I would appreciate your help very much.