Public Relations Officer (PRO) of Dominica Electricity Services (DOMLEC) Adina Bellot-Valentine has announced that the power restoration process in Dominica is winding down following the passage of Hurricane Maria last year.
She was speaking to the media at the company’s Head Office on Tuesday.
DOMLEC distribution infrastructure was severely damaged or affected by Hurricane Maria on September 18, 2017 leaving the entire country without power.
“I do not have the figures in terms of percentage and in terms of the amount of customers that we have on board, but we can see that based on the request we’ve been receiving for connections, it has gone down by quite a bit, so we can safely say that the restoration process is winding down,” she revealed.
However, she said that the company continues to experience issues with its Pay-As-You-Go system in certain areas.
“We have some issues with Pay-As-You-Go in terms of being able to read some of the meters and that is because we do not have collectors in certain areas and we are working with the other utilities, because it is a matter of communication and when we don’t have communication we are not able to read the meters,” Bellot-Valentine explained.
She continued, “We will be having that issue for a little while until we are able through the other utilities to be able to get communication in those areas.”
DOMLEC encourages customers in the problem areas to top-up before 12:30 pm to avoid disconnection, “because it means that we have to send our meter readers manually to read the meters and to see what’s going on with the meters.”
“Until we’ve gotten this communication issue resolved then we are going to have that problem once that resolves we wouldn’t have that problem,” she said.
In November 2017, the company vowed that all customers in Dominica will have access to its grid to facilitate reconnection by April 2018.
However the deadline was not met and the company’s manager, Bertilia McKenzie blamed a long list challenges such as inclement weather, difficulty in accessing unsafe terrain, lack of linesmen, shortage of specialized equipment, lack of cooperation by landowners, delays in receiving material, among others for not being able to make its grid accessible to customers for reconnection after Hurricane Maria.
She said that many of the challenges have been addressed and work continues for full restoration in the shortest possible time.
McKenzie mentioned that there were 80 linesmen from the region in Dominica and they were expected to stay until restoration is complete.
We should not be too wicked people.Remember 98% of power was impacted incl generators.So i say hats off to Domlec for a job well done in such a short time.
What about carib reserve
Well done DOMLEC workers.
Wish I could say the same for FLOW and Digicel. No updates given on the progress. Have bus passing to make people sign up for a service that not available. But who cares? Every week we have to top up to put data on our phones. They making back the money they lost on us.
Time Flow and Digicel inform the public of their progress. Let us know what is taking place. Is not Roseau and Portsmouth alone people need internet and cable.
Good job DOMLEC on keeping the public informed
Thank you for your effort. More must still be done. Those overhead lines must be placed underground as far as it is possible to do so.
What about the restoration of the street lights on the Island. the place is so dark..
and digicel and flow . Very disappointed in these two companies and their progress. So they believe some people dont need internet at their home to do work. But kudos to Domlec .
Excuses, Excuses!!!! What about Riviere Cyrique?