Residents in several communities experienced brief power interruptions on Wednesday morning as the Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA) carried out emergency repairs to a damaged transmission tower in Pigotts.
According to APUA, crews have begun replacing a damaged lightning arrester on the transmission tower, a critical component of the electricity network. To allow the work to be completed safely, electricity feeders were temporarily transferred to alternative circuits, resulting in short outages for some customers.
The utility said it also coordinated with several commercial customers, asking them to switch to their backup power systems for a limited time to reduce demand on the grid while repairs were underway.
As part of the effort to ease the load on the electricity system, the reverse osmosis plants at Barnacle Point and Ffryes were temporarily taken offline. The facilities, which require significant amounts of electricity to operate, will remain out of service until the repair work is completed, temporarily affecting water production.
APUA expects the repairs to be finished before midday. Once the work is complete, crews will reverse the temporary network changes, meaning customers affected by the earlier switching may experience another brief electricity interruption lasting approximately 15 to 20 minutes as feeders are returned to their normal circuits.
The authority apologised for the inconvenience and thanked customers for their patience and cooperation while the work is being completed.
Hopefully, the repairs go smoothly and the interruptions don’t last too long. Big up to the APUA crews working on it.