Chief Operations Officer at the island’s sole electricity provider, Dominica Electricity Services Ltd DOMLEC, Dave Stamp has announced that the 800KW generator provided to the company by the Government of Dominica will improve and reduce the frequent power outages, however, he warns that it will not eliminate the problem.
Stamp was speaking at a press conference held at the DOMLEC office at Fond Cole.
“The 800KW unit will improve the situation a bit, but will not take us out of the load-shedding mode totally,” he revealed. “What it would do, is maybe reduce the amount and duration of load shedding that we would have, all things being equal, assuming we don’t develop any other problems with any other units.”
He said, “It will improve and reduce, but it won’t eliminate.”
Stamp said the company is seeking 2 megawatts with respect to its rental capacity.
“Hopefully if we get the additional 2 megawatts that we are seeking with respect to our rental capacity, that will then add another 2 megawatts to our system and we are pushing to get that in place hopefully before the end of the year,” he stated.
DOMLEC is also planning to get additional capacity beyond that initial solution which Stamp believes should put the company in a more stable situation.
“We are about 3.8 megawatts short of our firm capacity situation, so if we have 2 megawatts of rental and 2 megawatts of additional capacity plus 0.8 of the least capacity that we will get from the government, then that should bring us back on par with our firm capacity situation,” the Domlec official explained.
Meanwhile, General Manager of (DOMLEC), Bertillia McKenzie, said the ongoing power cuts which have been affecting Dominicans are also caused by a longer-than-projected dry season.
“Another cause would be a longer than projected dry season which has affected the diesel units, not only their overall output, how much they can give us to serve the public, but also how efficient they are,” she revealed. “The ambient temperature around these units is very high because it is hot.”
The dry spells have also affected DOMLEC’s hydro units which, according to McKenzie, are normally capable of contributing between 30 and 35 percent of generation.
Currently, because of the lack of rain, hydro is able to contribute less than 15 percent of electricity generation on the island with the Fresh Water Lake level now at 4.95 meters from an optimum of 8.65 meters.
In March 2022, the government of Dominica announced that it had acquired majority shares in DOMLEC with Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit saying it was being done “in the best interest of electricity consumers, the shareholders and employees of the company, and Dominica.”
He said the move was in line with his government’s plan to make Dominica the first climate-resilient country in the world.
“The acquisition of DOMLEC aligns with our goals to build resilience in the energy sector through deliberate action to improve energy security, and strengthen growth and economic prospects. As part of our vision for a dynamic Dominica, we are pursuing greater efficiency in electricity generation to meet our national target of 100% clean, carbon-neutral energy by the year 2030,” Skerrit said.
We can never reduce power outrages until the situation is fixed with a 2 to 4 MW geothermal energy that we have put over $50 million into, and,.. kicking the goal down the road to now 2024 as the Grandbay vote is guaranteed.
You are about to put lots of new housing full of fans and air conditioning on those big old diesel engines even if you add 2 more.
You lucky the opposition is too lame to capitalize and take Grandbay from you.
Not a game anymore, the game is now real Vince, the game is finally real.
Welcome to the next level. So much chest beating, but rolling blackouts are here to stay. Who I’m I to say anything? The Labor people are doing their best.
Dr. SOS do right!
We must elect him for another 5 years so he can give us kerosene lamps.
A promise is a comfort to a fool. Dominicans experience this all too often. It’s a part of their existence for the past 20 years. Good luck to all you, keep on living on promises.
Reduced power outage my ferking a..!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just look at the dam schedule. Dominicans need to protest. This is way past ridiculous now
The schedule leaves me wondering if fuel shortage is a factor.
As I remember, towards the end of August DOMLEC projected that all would be back to normal by early September. Did a fuel delivery fail to materialise?
Well guess what? The IRC is headed by a Board. All the members of the Board are appointed by the Minister responsible for electricity. See section 5 (2) of the Electricity Supply Act No 10 of 2006 (Chapter 43:70 in the 2017 Laws).
Who is the Minister for Electricity? The Minister for Energy. Who is the Minister for Energy? You tell me.
We’ve been duped. It seems to me that government bought controlling interest in DOMLEC and are now blocking the process through the IRC in the name of no-where-in-sight Geothermal.
ADMIN, we need to know who are the members of the Board of the IRC.
Generating power without adequate headroom and backup will always lead to this situation, one does not need to be a rocket scientist to figure it out. Poor judgment on these guy’s part.
Lack of competition in the sector is also a reason for this kind of laid back, don’t care approach to managing this kind of business.
What a big shame and they still charging the people full electric bill. That don’t even happened on smaller islands. The people has been so indoctrinated, they are blind see. Cool out money finished hey.
a lot of people will be quick to blame Domlec, but that is irrational and improper thinking. When (about 17 years ago) Domlec was a private company, they tried to purchase newer and better generating sets with capacities that would far exceed our present demand. they also tried to upgrade to a 22kv system (from the present 11kv system), but they were met with stiff resistance from the government who had their agenda to control Domlec. They only gave them 10-15 years generation license. calculating the profitability margin, the then investors thought that they’d barely break even muchless to make a substantial profit. they deciced not to invest. that’s exactly what the government wanted. they bought off the majority shares after frustrating the company. changing the contract agreement and giving an even shorter generating license. they had to simply sell to the government. now they government is giving domlec 800KW. that is an embarrassment. i don’t want to say its Skerr, but yes…
DOMLEC and the government are the same – two sets of dam as….!! One is afraid of the phrase “electoral reform” and the other “load shedding”
DOMLEC please let the public know how much your broke majority shareholder have borrowed from you since acquiring the majority shares. And how much have been repaid to date
Fifteen years ago, from my workshop at Antrim, I presented a series of one day workshops for maintenance engineers in the private and public sector. The workshops were titled, “Good Workshop Practice”. Preventative maintenance was the key topic.
DOMLEC sent a team of their engineers to one of my workshops. But alas, on leaving, they found that their vehicle’s battery was flat!
While Skerrit touts the genius of his purchase of Domlec, the previous owners must be laughing all the way to the bank – they got a fool to take a pile of junk off their hands. The government is left with an asset that is fully depreciate (its worthless) and now they have to spend millions to bring it up to snuff.
Pure brilliance on the part of Skerrit.
DNO why is it that your reporters attend these media conferences, ask no questions, and then simply regurgitate the information provided? We the readers expect more investigative work from a so called media outlet. During the Prime Minister’s press conference today, your reporter sat there and no questions were posed to the Prime Minister, Domlec, or the Minister of Health. It was only Mat and curtis who asked questions. I encourage your reporters to be more engaged and proactive in seeking answers and information during such events in the future. You all have simply become part of governemtn’s PR team with NO investigative work.
Dave, should we be pleased that in the middle of the hottest summer month you tell us that we are to expect less load shedding. All you are telling us is the suffering will continue even if the duration won’t be as long on the days that you cut off the flow of electricity. What comfort is this?. You should have known that the capacity was insufficient before the load shedding commenced, realizing the decrepit state of the equipment you inherited.
Why did you have to put the general public through the nonsense of ” Capacity Management Program”? What the hell is that, anyway?
When the constant load shedding power cuts cause people’s domestic appliances to go bad, even if they aren’t home or on island, when this occurs, your company still requires them to provide the day, date and time when the electricity was cut. Real third world mentality of a monopoly operation. A class action lawsuit should be brought against your company. It’s still 🔥.
“Those who fail to prepare, prepare to fail.” This quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin has it exactly right. The statement by the COO is yet another glaring example of inept and reactive leadership. How do we explain that the electricity problems in a country that touts itself as ‘resilient” are yet to be resolved in 2023? How can you build resilience into every facet of society without electrical power? The wrong people have been in leadership positions for for too long in this country.
Why should anyone trust anything that comes from between the lips of people associated with the congenital lying Roosevelt? Believe their actions not their words.
The current DOMLEC generators have passed their expiry date light years ago. How much more electricity can we expect them to generate? Can you make expired medicine be effective?
Until these hackneyed machines are replaced, expect rolling blackouts. Roosevelt and his self serving parasites are just trying to placate the people with toothsome assurances. There is no conformity to facts when these serial LIARS speak.
Darkness has descended on Dominica literally and metaphorically. The country is tethering on statelessness.
I keep reading a lot of excuses from the general manager and the COO.
my question is, why did they let it get to that? Why were there not action plans in.place to get ahead of this crisis?
Where there is no vision the people perish. Dominica needs a visionary leader not a incurious, babbling con man.
What the people need most right now is servant leadership, instead, they ave gotten ruinous dictatorship.
Ibo MALAPROP, so why don’t step forward to fulfill such a position since you are so much a visionary critic?