BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – ELECTRICITY consumers in St. Kitts finally have an explanation for the abrupt outage early Sunday (Oct. 18), as officials at the Needsmust Power Station revealed it was due to work on the new generator.
Residents of the island were taken aback Sunday morning when they awoke to the interruption in their electricity supply. According to Operations Engineer C. Jomo Williams, the outage was planned and controlled to facilitate work on a new generator.
He stated that it commenced at 4:30 a.m. and was completed shortly after 7:00 a.m.
“The procedure to tie in the auxiliary panel for the new purchased 4MW Holeby engine at the Needsmust Power Station took place during the morning hours today (Oct. 18). This procedure called for the total shutdown of the power plant to safely install the necessary equipment,” Williams said.
He added that in the interest of security, management at the power station had decided not to announce the outage beforehand. Although the installation procedure finished after 7:00 a.m., electricity was not restored to some parts of the island until noon.
“In previous instances, the outages have been due to routine maintenance and would only affect certain areas. But something of this nature, when the entire island would be affected, required a different approach,” he explained.
“If we had announced it, thieves could have taken opportunity of the situation,” he added.
Since an early morning fire at the Needsmust Power Station on October 2, 2008, the local electricity supply has been sketchy. The fire caused the plant to lose its two largest engines and a system of load-shedding was subsequently instituted.
In December 2008, the government began renting generators from Aggreko International Projects Ltd., with an estimated price tag of EC$11M. They subsequently purchased a MAN Diesel Ltd. Holeby generator, which arrived on-island in September.
Speaking to SKNVibes at that time, Bertil Browne, Acting Manager of the Electricity Department, explained that the new engine would result in a more reliable electricity supply and that it would probably be commissioned in early December.
Williams said that the station was still “on track” to meet its December deadline, but could not say whether future work on the Holeby generator would result in more outages.
