Dominica’s sole electricity provider, DOMLEC, has sought to explain two power cuts within days of each other, which left the entire island without electricity.
The cuts are being blamed on system wide failures with the roots being a fault at the company’s Sugar Loaf plant.
The first event took place on April 25.
“At about 5:38 pm on April 25th we had the first event and the power supply of our 35,574 customers was interrupted,” General Manager Bertilia Leblanc-Mckenzie said. “Our review of data gathered subsequent to the event indicated that a series of generator reactions had occurred as a result of a fault.”
She explained that this system failure was initiated by the fault at the terminals of one of the generating units at Sugar Loaf.
“This fault was not cleared in a timely manner, as is required, and the resulting fault current surge caused a trip of one of the neighboring units at Sugar Loaf as well and this lead to a drop in the frequency below the preconfigured setting of the other units,” she stated. “And consequently the other units came offline leading to this island wide system failure.”
The second power cut took place on April 29 at about 10:21 am for roughly three hours.
“We are currently looking at what caused that system failure,” McKenzie said. “We have looked at our transmission and distribution system and our data gathering has indicated to us that no fault registered on that system.”
She said changes made after the first system failure will make the system stronger to reduce the possibility of another system wide failure.
“Our recommendations to avert future events are to look at all our generator settings and we will focus on the under frequency set points with a view to take in the corrective action … that’s for the first event,” McKenzie said.
How lengthy does it take to dry after my sofa cleansing?
Dominica is moving forward in reverse.when i was a child over 40 years ago,we did not have any power cut except for storms ,work or accident …now people are eating more spoilt foods because of this electricity cut problem…children cannot study or make school home work,kerosene is less common,do they ever think of parents with little children or the sick ,handicap and elderly? the gov’t needs to look into such a problem because the stone age is long gone…burning candles or using lamps should be a choice and not an obligation…stop with these daft excuses ,people are not stupid,normally there should be a law to support each person who have lost their frozen foods,this company should not get away with this ,make them responsible and pay the public for what they have lost…
Imagine a power outage at that time when it is getting dark, when some are preparing dinner and others are eating. If they do not have a lamp, candle or flashlight near them they will be scrambling through the dark for one. It is not fun.
I hate power outages. So many different chores people could be performing at that time when the power goes off. They may also be viewing TV, the news, an interesting program and are on the Internet. There are also some who take care of their sick family at home. It is disappointing when power goes off at that time. Yet, there are times it cannot be helped.
I hope all vital services as hospitals have a back-up generator.
Hope this type of power outage does not recur and when it is not raining and stormy.
Be careful DOMLEC staff. Perform your job responsibly. Be alert at all times. Thousands of D/can nationals/residents are depending on your electricity service.
i am just here to see who all gonna put the blame on ALKALINE
Lames excuses, domlec