By Aabigayle McIntosh
Work is ongoing to fully restore power across communities in Antigua and Barbuda, following an island-wide block-out late Tuesday afternoon.
Manager of the APUA Electricity Business Unit Andre Mathias said APUA along with the Antigua Power Company (APC) was at the time conducting a test at the power plant and there was a technical issue that caused the plant to chip.
“Now if you lose 46 megawatts of generation out of a peak load of 50 Meggs, the peak load would collapse. It is not something we would have expected, but while you are commissioning these things do happen,” Mathias told state media last night.
He said they have asked APC to provide a full report detailing what transpired. That report will be analyzed to minimize future occurrences.
Mathias added that shortly after 5 pm Tuesday evening his team would have started the restoration process to most areas.
“So, as we speak, we have 26 out of the 27 feeders back online feeding the grid,” he said.’
The electricity boss indicated that once the assessment is completed testing will continue to ensure the new powerplant is fully operational.
Mathais also maintains that the routine test is to add generation to the grid so that customers can continue to enjoy reliable power or even more reliable and secure power. He said the addition of more generations to the grid is no simple tasks, but it is absolutely necessary.
Where I work in town the electricity didn’t come off, so it was not island wide power outage.