Storm makes for long night at Electricity Department
By Ryan Haas
Reporter-SKNVibes.com
~~Adz:Right~~ BASSETERRE St. Kitts- FIELD Technicians for the Electricity Department burned the midnight oil Wednesday night as they worked to repair five power outages that left a several portions of the island without electricity as they began their daily routines.
“As a result of heavy rains and windy weather conditions experienced since April 2nd, the electricity supply experienced a number of faults,” reads the official explanation from the Needsmust Power Station Superintendent, Kevin Bennett. According to officials at the Meteorological Office, gusting winds of up to 21knots were recorded and 1.74 inches of rain has already fallen for the month of April.
Trouble began around 1:40 a.m. when the Canada feeder was tripped. Technicians were able to restore power around 2:55 a.m., but not before a fault at the Frigate Bay feeder caused Caterpillar #1 to also trip offline and leave residents of Bayfords, Industrial Site, Frigate Bay and Cayon in the dark. Most of these areas had their power restored by 4:55 a.m., but the Half Moon Bay area was expected to be without electricity until at least 3p.m. Thursday.
The Basseterre North feeder also encountered problems around 2:30 a.m. Bennett stated that regarding that feeder “the following areas were without Electricity: Irish Town, Buckleys to Palmetto Point, Shadwells, Trafalgar, and Lime Kiln. The fault was located at approximately 10:00. This resulted in the reconfiguration of the system allowing the supply to be restored to the following areas at 10:15: Buckleys to Palmetto Point, Shadwells and a large section of Irish Town.
Further reconfiguration at 11:00 resulted in full restoration of the feeder when the supply was restored to Trafalgar, Lime Kiln and the remaining section of Irish Town.”
In the early morning hours, around 5:30 a.m., the Cayon and Canada feeders were tripped offline by over-current faults, but field technicians were able to restore power to those areas by 6:28 a.m. and 7:20 a.m., respectively.
The Electricity Department apologized for any inconveniences that the interruption in supply of electricity may have caused.
