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| Weeks of Load Shedding Ahead |
| By Sheena Brooks |
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Needsmust power station |
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Electricity consumers on St. Kitts can expect at least four more weeks of load shedding beginning next Monday, June 21.
Speaking exclusively with The Observer, Needsmust Power Station Operations Manager Jomo Williams said the outages will be necessary in order to carry out scheduled equipment maintenance.
“From next week we have to take one of the engines off-line for a major overhaul. It is still under warrantee, so foregoing the overhaul any longer could jeopardize that warrantee. We don’t want to lose that, so we have to take it down from Monday for about four weeks,” he said.
Williams said that the initial six weeks of load shedding implemented on May 12 has been fraught with unscheduled outages due to unexpected and unforeseeable problems.
“The six-week load shedding has been delayed a bit. The damage that occurred about two weeks ago to the cam section of the Holaby #2 in particular was expected to take a week, and that was delayed because the crucial part which was being brought in by the engineer was temporarily lost due to the airline losing his luggage for almost a week. So that delayed the repair work to the engine,” he explained.
Last Friday’s outage, which affected the entire Basseterre area for several hours, was blamed on a fault that developed in the system.
“As a result of the power station going down it was revealed that there were a few other minor problems which took us a little bit longer than expected to repair. That is why the outage was widespread and lasted so long,” Williams said.
He informed that the department was trying as much as possible to adhere to the schedule as it related to the planned power outages.
“We are really trying to stick to the load shedding schedule, barring any unforeseen incidents.”
There was no load shedding carried out on Tuesday Williams noted, saying it was hoped that there would not be any scheduled or unscheduled electricity outages for the remainder of this week.
“All the engines that are in service are available right now so we have a capacity of about 25 megawatts. So we didn’t have to do any load shedding today, and we don’t anticipate having to do any for the rest of the week.”
The Government announced recently that Cabinet had approved the ordering of four new generators to help bring the power station up to peak capacity and efficiency.
“We are having a period of load shedding simply because we do not have the capacity anymore to continue to meet our daily demands while at the same time maintaining the generators at the power station. At the moment we have on order four brand new generators because we need to bring our capacity up in order to improve the efficiency and reliability of supply making it practical to have regular uninterrupted supply of electricity while we are doing routine maintenance on the engines at the generating plant,” Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas said.
While consumers may be looking forward to some long-term resolution of the inconsistency in the electricity supply, news of an “adjustment” of electricity rates sent the populace reeling.
Dr. Douglas announced last week that rising fuel costs on the world market and an outdated tariff system had caused government to revisit the existing electricity rates.
Though he declined to say exactly how the adjustment would affect electricity rates, consumers anticipate a rate hike. The PM did indicate that the move would see the government earning some $14 million in revenue.
Additionally, as of November 1, domestic electricity consumers can expect their monthly bills to increase with the addition of the Value Added Tax which shall be levied on all units used after the first 100.
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