BELCO Explains Recent Power Outages

July 17, 2012

BELCO said they wish to “assure the public that it has more than adequate capacity to meet expected load on the system this summer, and that outages on Saturday and Monday were unrelated to increased summertime electricity demand.”

This past Saturday almost 16,000 customers lost power for a few hours, which was followed by another brief outage ion various parts of the island on Monday. BELCO said they have “identified some anomalies that coincided to cause this unusual outage and steps are being taken to address the issues.”

A statement from the Company said: “BELCO’s Central Plant currently has generating capacity of approximately 152 megawatts [MW]. The highest load recorded on the system so far this summer has been 110 MW, which is well below plant capacity and approximately 10% below 2011 and 2010 summertime peak loads.

“Saturday’s and Monday’s outages started in BELCO’s East Power Station, when several newer engines were forced out of service by electrical and mechanical faults, which resulted in load being shed from the system.

“The company’s Operations and Engineering Groupshave identified some anomalies that coincided to cause this unusual outage and steps are being taken to address the issues.

“Load shedding is designed to occur quickly to protect the system from total shutdown by cutting off supply to circuits and happens without notice. Saturday’s widespread outage affected the majority of load shed circuits. The load shed circuits are rotated from time to time to minimise customers being affected repeatedly.

“Certain circuits are never included in the rotation, such as those serving the hospital, airport and City of Hamilton. BELCO apologises for the inconvenience to its customers. Every effort is being made to ensure that BELCO’s system is safe, secure and reliable for the benefit of customers and the Island as a whole.”

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Comments (20)

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  1. Opressed says:

    Blah, blah, blah. Does the PLP run BELCO too??

  2. 32n64w says:

    If at maximum usage for the year to date BELCO relies on only 72% of their total load capacity why are they even load shedding? There is more to this story which the public are being kept in the dark about.

    • ABC says:

      solar storm got them

    • TheFuture says:

      Arry body is a fattin ex-purt but someonto he’s still don’t know jack. The protection system prevents permanent damage to the protected systems by disconnecting them under fault conditions. This also allows the fault to be isolated and the rest of the system to be restored as quickly as possible. Some of the systems that faulted are approaching 25 years in service. And no new station in sight. Ignorant people run their mouth yet prolly can’t even change a lightbulb never mind understand a complex system. BELCO has the highest reliability of any Caribbean nation, period.

  3. Liars! says:

    bullsiat

  4. Sh!t Happens says:

    It is to bad belco does not have any compatition they would pull up their socks. I have NOT once heard them say for the last few outages we would give a credit. I can clearly remember when cable vision use to go out at my mothers house you can bet your boots she jumped on them and got a credit.
    All belco wants to do is put up their rates and want their money on time if not lights out.

    • Mmidnite says:

      Cablevision give out credits cause your bill is static. You get charged the same whether you use it or not. Belco’s billing system doesn’t work that way for residential customers, the more you use the more they charge. If your power is off, why would they need to credit you if you aren’t being charged for using powwer?

    • Smh says:

      Are you serious? I hope not. The Belco meter vs a set cablevision bill is self explanatory. I guess ignorance is alive and well

  5. Argosy says:

    If you visit any Caribbean Island you will know that this level of power service/supply is the norm.

    First…associate membership of Caricom. Now common Olympics TV feed. Get used to the power being cut with regular monotony, people.

    Downward we spiral………..

  6. k says:

    how come all of the large office buildings have their lights and airconditioners on , during the night??? wasted energy there !!!!!

  7. No more nonsence says:

    Belco warned us over a month ago that if they did not get the increase in fees they to upgrade their power plant we would have outages!!! THis is nothing more than the mafia at work! The mafia in this case being Belco!!!

    • The Defender says:

      Extortion? NO!!!!!

    • More with less says:

      Um Belco DID raise their rates! They increased their fuel surcharge! I truly hope out of all this more people choose to go solar/wind if they can afford it. I know if i could afford it, I would do it in a heartbeat.

      • Rockfish says:

        Did you read the article in the Bottom Line about the Fuel Adjustment Rate that BELCO charges???? HELLO… Gov’t makes $15/barrel off of them in addition to Rubis and Esso. If the cost of fuel increases you notice it at the pump and on your BELCO bill, however it is a delayed effect on your BELCO bill as they buy at three month intervals.

        The Rate Commission set’s the Fuel Adjustment Rate, not BELCO…

        Must there be such ignorant comments made.
        Educate yourself before you type.

        • More with less says:

          Cost if fuel has gone down. These fluctuations should be absorbed by the company to a large extent.

  8. Mad Dawg says:

    Is this what passes as an ‘explanation’? That there were ‘anomalies’?

  9. What Next says:

    Tuesday night lights out again what the Hell is going on with belco. That makes it Saturday, Monday and again tonight.

  10. Disgusting says:

    Is this really an explaination for the power going out on the weekend and on monday morning?
    Really??

    “The company’s Operations and Engineering Groupshave identified some anomalies that coincided to cause this unusual outage and steps are being taken to address the issues.

    After all the statement says that there is an Engineering Group in there some where so someone has a degree that can explain it to the wanting public because this is a tiresome excersice that seems to be happening more often than not.

    It seems that Belco call there PR department scrambling and they didn’t even take the time call some one who really knew or could explain to them what actually happened.

    I await the REAL answer on what keeps causing the power outages so regularly.
    Ball is in your court BELCO.

  11. Flywheel says:

    Well i can say there is way more to the story than they are letting on becasue there will be more to follow this long hot summer.

  12. The Defender says:

    This all reminds me of certain U.S government agencies and the people who run them. The people who really know what is going on we will not hear. What we hear is what those in control want us to hear. Unless you have a solar panel, just suck it up and bear the licks coming to us with no alternative energy source.