By Lesroy W. Williams Observer Reporter
” (Basseterre, St.Kitts)”Leader of the People’s Action Movement, Lindsay Grant, has issued a statement regarding the Needsmust Power Plant Fire on October 2, which caused an island-wide black out as a result of damage to the power station’s two largest engines, the Mirrlees 8MB 430 and the Mirrlees 12MB 430. As a result of the damage to the two major engines, load shedding throughout the country is expected to take place until the problem can be fixed. In the meantime, the government said that they would be renting generators from overseas. A team of engineers led by Jeff Close was flown in to work on the damaged engines. Minister of Public Works and Utilities, the Hon. Earl Assim Martin has promised to get to the bottom of the cause of the fire. He has called for patience in dealing with the crisis. One of the engineers said that that the fire was an oil fire, a crankcase explosion. What caused the crankcase explosion is yet to be determined, the engineer said. Prime Minister Denzil Douglas visited the Needsmust Power Plant and surveyed the damages on October 3 and issued a call for patience, understanding and prayers at this ‘trying period” of load shedding as engineers work to fix the problem. Mr. Grant has said that what has happened is as a result of carelessness on the part of the Labor Government. “I sympathize with the community at large who now suffer from the lack of electrical power and who on a daily basis are the recipients of load shedding for hours. The inevitable has happened. We have constantly and consistently warned the public about the prototype generators that were purchased for over $30 million and were no good. Now we are hurting because of the irresponsible spending of taxpayer’s money on faulty generators. For the mistake of the government led by Denzil Douglas we the taxpayers now have to pay. We have to pay because we are left without a constant supply of a basic necessity in addition to the fact that significant sums of our taxpaying dollars now have to be spent to right the wrong,” Mr. Grant said. “We have argued for years that the taxpayers of this country have been shafted by the government, for an expenditure of 30 million dollars on the procurement of two distinctly different Prototype Generators, representing 6 million dollars more than the second highest bid,” he said. Mr. Grant said that it is a travesty that since September 2004, tax payers have been burdened with paying 571,000 per month for the rental of generators from Barbados and the management of the Needsmust Power Plant by a foreign entity. “Do you recall that just before the 2004 general election we had the same electricity problems; we got $500 and a promise of a Commission of Inquiry by Denzil Douglas. We are still waiting on the Commission of Inquiry,” Mr. Grant said. He also said it is time for the people of this country to seek change and to hold their government to good governance principles. “As citizens of this Nation feeling the adverse effects in a myriad of ways I urge you to demand that our Government conducts itself with transparency and integrity and further demand that the Government commissions a full Public Inquiry into this matter for the good of all as promised by Prime Minister Douglas just before the last election,” Mr. Grant said. Due to the fire, the operating capacity at the power station was reduced to 15.9 megawatts. The normal demand for electricity during peak periods is approximately 24 megawatts and during off-peak hours is approximately 15 megawatts resulting in an 8.1 megawatt deficit, Mr. Martin said.
