In recent weeks, residents across several communities in Saint Lucia have experienced power outages, causing frustration and inconvenience.
The most recent outage occurred on Sunday due to a faulty generator at the Cul de Sac plant and the unavailability of another generator caused by mandatory maintenance.
The factors triggered an unplanned interruption in the power supply across several communities.
The blackout, which began at 7:04 PM, affected areas including parts of Soufrière, Vieux Fort, Anse La Raye, Choc, Millet, Massade, and Cap Estate.
St. Lucia Electricity Services Limited (LUCELEC) Managing Director Gilroy Pultie disclosed in a press statement that Cul De Sac plant equipment failure and damage to its distribution system caused by third-party excavation works caused the disruptions.
In total, four generators were out of commission, three of which the third party excavation works damaged.
“This has affected our system reliability, resulting in more frequent unplanned outages,” Pultie revealed.
He noted that these faults have impacted larger areas than usual, with restoration efforts taking longer than normal due to reduced operational flexibility.
The LUCELEC Managing Director explained that utility teams worked diligently to address the issue, fully restoring power to all customers by 10:03 PM.
The company apologised for the inconvenience caused and reassured customers that it was taking all necessary steps to prevent future disruptions.
LUCELEC expects to restore most of its normal operational flexibility by the end of this week as it works towards preventing further unplanned outages.
Be prepared Lucian, the outages has just began. LUCELEC is a totally different and uncaring power company. There must come a time when the government will be forced to look into the operations of LUCELEC. Let’s hope it’s not when everything comes crashing down.
Turd party excavation, who. WASCO?
@Ben. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
With all the money lucelec makes this is unacceptable!
I’m trying to make sense of the article, or is it the jargon, what on earth is meant by ‘third party excavation works ‘, are the generators buried under ground, are the electricity cables buried too. If they are, aren’t they marked to indicate such, just wondering!
Fluctuations in the power supply has been. on-going since after beryl passed. This can cause damage to your electrical appliances. The outages and fluctuations are most times unannounced which is a deviation from lucelec existing standard
R, you could not have articulated your point any better. They are ridiculous!!
@Ben lol I thought the same thing cause you know them but I think it was Namalco this time working on the West Coast road
It’s true because my grand son’s Xbox got damage due to the outage