BASSETERRE, ST. Kitts – THE St. Kitts Electricity Department (SKED) has announced a pause in its load-shedding schedule, much to the relief of thousands of consumers.
SKED Operations Engineer Jomo Williams told SKNVibes the department had temporarily ceased load-shedding since Monday, June 14.
The schedule had been in effect since May 12, precipitated by damage to an 8MB430 generator and other various overhauls and engine repairs.
“We finished repairs on all the engines except one. Some work needs to be done on one generator but the department will decide shortly about whether or not to take it offline, and when to do it.
“If we decide to shut it down, then we would need to implement a new load-shedding schedule. Right now all the engines are in service, so our capacity is about 25 MW. We didn’t have to load-shed last week and we don’t plan to do it this week either,” said Williams.
The initial six-week load-shedding period was marred by several unplanned outages, as well as failures to strictly adhere to the schedule. Williams stressed that the department had tried its best to do so, but had been hindered by unexpected problems and complications.
The department is sure to be buoyed by the arrival of four new generators, which were announced by Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas in the last session of Parliament.
“We are having a period of load-shedding because we do not have the capacity anymore to continue to meet our daily demands while at the same time maintaining the generators at the power station.
“We have on order four brand new generators, because we need to bring our capacity up in order to improve the efficiency and reliability of supply and make it practical to have regular uninterrupted supply of electricity while we are doing routine maintenance on the engines at the generating plant,” Douglas noted.
Speaking exclusively to SKNVibes, SKED Acting General Manager Bertil Browne said he expected two of the generators to come online in October, although he admitted that they were not yet on-island.
He was unable to give a timeline as to when the other two engines would be in operation.
