A power outage on Friday evening that left the island without electricity for more than an hour was reportedly caused by rodent interference with an 11-kilovolt (kV) breaker, according to preliminary investigations.
In a statement issued on Saturday, Saint Lucia Electricity Services Limited (LUCELEC) said the incident occurred at approximately 9:37 p.m. following the fault within its Cul‑de‑Sac electricity network.
The company explained that this activated its automatic protection system, which is designed to prevent significant damage to electrical equipment, leading to the complete shutdown of the power system.
“While such wildlife accidents are rare and are well-recognised risks in power systems globally, LUCELEC employs multiple layers of protection specifically to contain faults of this nature and to prevent potential damage to the wider system,” LUCELEC stated.
“Following inspections and system checks, power restoration commenced at approximately 10:31 p.m. with electricity supply being progressively returned to customers across the island. Full restoration was completed by 11:11 p.m.,” it stated further.
The company has apologised to customers for the inconvenience caused by the unplanned island‑wide outage and said it has initiated a detailed technical review of the incident.
While island‑wide power outages have not been frequent in recent years, the country experienced a similar incident on March 6.
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