Public Relations Officer (PRO) of DOMLEC, Adina Bellot-Valentine, has made it clear that an island wide power outage on Thursday morning was in “no way” linked to the protest actions staged in Salisbury.
“There is no way that this could have been linked to anything,” she noted.
Dominica was affected by an island wide power cut just as a massive protest in Salisbury began heating up on Thursday morning. Eyebrows were raised at the timing of the blackout with many alleging that it was deliberately done to keep residents in the dark as to what was taking place in the western community.
But Bellot-Valentine has shot down the claims.
“DOMLEC does not take part in any demonstration or is in favour or not in favour of any demonstration and so our units at Fond Cole and our electricity systems is certainly not linked to any demonstration of any kind,” she stated.
She said it all has to do with a newly installed transformer at the company’s plant in Fond Cole.
“Upon investigations by the engineers and technicians at the Fond Cole Plant, it was recognized that a transformer which was installed recently has actually blown and that’s what caused the system to trip and trigger the entire generators all over in Sugar Loath, and of course those at Fond Cole, and off course caused the power to go out,” she explained.
She stated that there have been no reports of damage or sabotage to DOMLEC’s system and the company’s employees “worked tediously to ensure that power was restored and within an hour we had started restoring power.”
“So we really want to apologize to our customers for this power interruption and off course we regret the inconvenience,” she noted.
In recent times DOMLEC has been hit by several island wide power cuts.
At a recently held press conference, the company’s General Manager Bertilia Leblanc- Mckenzie said measures were put in place to avoid that kind of service interruption and Bellot-Valentine noted that what transpired on Thursday was “a completely different scenario from what transpired before.”
“So I know that the engineers and technicians are working on it and to ensure that, that kind of situation does not repeat itself,” she stated.
The country was affected by the first island wide outage on April 25, at about 5:38 pm, while the second power cut took place on April 29th about 10:21 am.
Fishy indeed
Is this not strange that there was a power outage on that day and around that time? Know this, it is a sign from above to be peaceful, propagate peace and maintain it in the land.
Mrs valentine,In light of your explanation to the island wide power outage,I think you should seek more information on the reason for the outage before coming on air to explain..a transmission transformer can blow or will blow over time,age and a few other factors.however,replacing such a transformer would take a minimum of eight hrs due to all what’s involved..a distribution transformer on the other hand is much easier to change and would not affect an entire island like dominica..myself being in the field of power line tech and hydro business I am able to speak on that issue..I am disappointed with your explanation..
How convenient!
Come on Mrs. Valentine! . You make me laugh in Spanish !!
Assertive, NOT Aggressive!
Yeah Right ! Who will believe that ? How coincidental
You are indeed right “how coincidental”. That’s why you will believe it in your own mind.