By Devonne Cornelius
St. Kitts and Nevis (WINN) – There has been a complete restoration of power following an island-wide blackout on Thursday, November 12, which lasted for more than 24 hours due to a fire at the Needsmust Power Station at the St. Kitts Electricity Company Limited (SKELEC).
In an interview with SKELECs Corporate Communications Manager, Ms. Patrice Harris on Saturday morning (Nov. 14) she said “at the moment, the engineering teams at SKELEC are still conducting investigations to determine the root cause of the fire that would have taken place at about 7:15 a.m. at the power generation plant on Thursday, November 12.”
As a precautionary measure, all of the engines at the Needsmsut Power Station were shut off.
“What we do know, a fire took place in one of the electrical panels, and as a precautionary measure the operators on shift… powered down the power plant…which would have initiated an islandwide outage,” said Ms. Harris.
The Corporate Communications Manager said several teams at SKELEC played a pivotal role in the restoration of electricity to the island. Work commenced immediately and was carried out by some 75 employees of SKELEC over a 29 hour period where some members worked on a 12-hour shift.
“The full restoration of the power plant was, as well as the feeders to have all customers supplied with electricity, would have taken about 29 hours. It would have involved at least 75 members of staff at different points in times. The power generation team which would have included our mechanics as well as our operators then the restoration effort would have been passed on to our transmission and distribution team.”
During the power outage, frequent updates were being disseminated to the general public by SKELEC and they used the opportunity to express appreciation to the general public for their patience and for the kind words sent to their teams during the restoration work.
