Following the recent fire at its Beausejour Power Plant in Carriacou, Grenlec is providing a further update about the situation.
As the Company has acknowledged, the fire damaged two of the four generators at the Plant.
Fortunately, the two functioning generators are able to meet the electricity demand on the island and allowed Grenlec to restore electricity to all customers by the morning following the incident.
On Tuesday, 16 May 2023, Clive Hosten, Acting General Manager together with Wallace Collins, the Company’s Manager for Carriacou and Petite Martinique updated customers in Carriacou via two radio programmes.
They noted that in the normal course of operations, electricity service interruptions can result from faults as well as essential maintenance and other operational requirements.
Such electricity disruptions are prevented or minimised by the use of reserve or back-up generation . This back-up generation power is typically sized to provide in excess of the highest recorded demand of all customers on the electricity system.
Mr. Hosten explained, “In the case of Carriacou, the loss of two of our four generators means that Grenlec is operating the electricity system without any reserve power. We regret that there will be unavoidable interruptions of electricity service to facilitate planned outages for maintenance of the existing generators and other operations in addition to unplanned incidents that may arise”.
To improve reliability, Grenlec is pursuing two initiatives. In the short-term, the Company has made arrangements to rent a generator to provide temporary reserve capacity. The Company is awaiting confirmation about the shipping and delivery timelines for this rental unit.
Secondly, various assessments are being undertaken to ascertain the cause of the fire and the extent of the damage. These reports will help Grenlec determine the best permanent solution for restoring reliability to Carriacou.
Mr. Hosten continued, “We apologise for the uncertainty, inconvenience and other issues that customers are coping with as a result of the present challenges with the electricity supply. We assure customers that we are making all efforts to resolve the situation urgently.
Mr. Hosten and Mr. Collins both thanked customers for their patience and appealed to them to conserve energy to reduce the demand on the two functioning generators.
They also reminded customers about unplugging appliances and equipment or switching them off at the socket if there is an opportunity to do so when electricity goes off.
As it works to restore reliability, Grenlec will continue to provide notice about planned outages and updates to customers about planned solutions.