BASSETERRE, St. Kitts-THE EC $6.5 million allotted toward the rental of electricity generators for a sixth-month period has vastly improved the overall electricity grid in St. Kitts, Prime Minister Dr. Hon. Denzil Douglas said yesterday (Feb. 4).
Friday (Feb. 6) will mark the three month anniversary of the Federation’s rental of generators from Agreco International Projects Ltd. in order to compensate for the two generators lost to an October 2 fire at the Needsmust Power Station.
“We took a decision to rent for six months because we wanted to make sure that there was adequate time for the necessary repairs and changes that were taking place at the power station to be completed,” Douglas said at yesterday’s press conference.
The PM noted that apart from assessing and repairing the damages caused by the fire, the generators were rented in order to give the Electricity Department an opportunity to improve the overall system.
“A number of new initiatives are being pursued at this time that we have extra power. We are using that opportunity of additional power to do a number of other reforms that were being contemplated for some time.”
The said initiatives would be aimed at improving the “security, efficiency and reliability” of St. Kitts’ grid, he said.
Despite the improvements to the system from the generator rentals, an unscheduled island-wide outage swept across St. Kitts the morning of the press conference due to “a ruptured cooling system at the Needsmust Power Station”.
Cries that the electricity problems from the fire still plagued St. Kitts were vehemently disputed by the Prime Minister.
“To say that there is a problem in St. Kitts-Nevis today with the electricity supply is really not truly correct. I find it very difficult when our own people are afraid to give credit where credit is due.
“I am certain there is a marked improvement in the services of electricity today compared to what it was two months ago. If for example this morning you were told there was going to be a scheduled outage and there was, it was a scheduled outage. In every country there has to be scheduled outages in some areas when there is maintenance,” he said.
A second outage in as many days was felt today (Feb. 5) as electricity once again dropped out at 12:15 p.m. in downtown Basseterre and other areas for a roughly one-hour window.
Douglas urged the nation to be patient with the Electricity Department workers, many of whom “sacrificed most of their Christmas to ensure that you and your family, and me and my family had electricity”.
“The electricity situation has improved markedly, and I give you the assurance that it will continue to improve with time. However, there would be times when there would be scheduled, and maybe one or two unscheduled outages because none of us is perfect,” he said.
1.jpg)