Transformer Trips, Causes Brief Overnight Outage
[Updated] At 4.35am this morning [July 27] there was another power outage in Hamilton after a transformer tripped, with service restored approximately 90 minutes later.
A BELCO spokesperson said: “At approximately 4:35 am, the transformer inside the Park Road substation tripped due to a fault on a related piece of equipment. Electricity service was restored at approximately 6:09am. The cause of the fault is being investigated.
“Work will commence this morning to install a new, second transformer in the Park Road Substation, replacing the one that was damaged yesterday.
“Traffic in the area of Park Road will be disrupted today from approximately 9:30 am to 11:30 am, and again in mid-afternoon, as large equipment is moved to and from the substation.
“Every effort will be made to minimize disruption, but motorists are advised to use alternate routes in mid-morning and mid-afternoon today. BELCO apologizes for the interruption of service and thanks customers for their patience.”
Yesterday afternoon 25% of the City of Hamilton lost power after a transformer explosion inside BELCO’s Park Road Substation at 3.18pm. Crews sprung to work, and electricity service to all customers was restored at approximately 4:15pm.
Update 11.16am: BELCO can be seen moving the transformer along Park Road.
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In the last week there have been at least five power outages in various parts of the island – most recently two in Hamilton alone within one day. BELCO keeps insisting the failures have nothing to do with load factors, however, they have yet to figure out (or at least publicly disclose) the actual reasons.
As a monopoly service provider that insists it needs to raise rates to fund future enhancements instead of reduce dividends to shareholders when are they going to be honest about their infrastructure problems?
Why have their rate increases grown exponentially when compared with actual fuel prices?
In their capacity as regulator why has the PLP Government allowed the public to be unfairly overburdened with unreasonable rate increases?
Exactly! Why are we paying more for less, where as in other industry areas such as Telecoms, we are paying less for more! No more monopolies!
I beg to differ – int he Telecom industry you are paying more for less – Bermuda has the most inflated prices for Telecom services from cell down to internet – and let’s not mention Cablevision.
As Far as the BELCO issue – Wear and Tear – after so many years of being in service equipment does fail from time to time despite being maintained regularly – I don’t understand how people are so quick to shoot off at the mouth about things they do not understand. As far as the fuel is concerned – if you failed to read the article in “The Bottom Line” put out earlier this month – BELCO does not make a profit off of fuel costs, BERMUDA GOVERNMENT DOES. BELCO takes a loss on the fuel adjustment seen by the consumer almost every month – but BERMUDA Government makes $15/barrell. Fuel is independent from consumption rates.
I am a shareholder and trust me – the dividens are nothing to write home about.
I’d rather pay for a $.oo1 rate increase/kwh/month than pay Cablevision $2.50/month for stolen signals where we cannot even watch all of the shows due to legal permissions.
Over privileged and under informed trolls!
Because there’s such a thing as fuel purchased previously was purchased at a higher rate and with people being more conscious of their electricity usage(lowering how much they used) there was less fuel used, which in turn means less revenue to pay for that fuel at the rate it was purchased at.
If Belco purchases 50 barrels of oil at say $45 a barrel, expecting to use all 50 barrels, they’ll make enough to pay for those 50 barrels, if they only go through 40 barrels, that’s 10 barrels they have no revenue to pay for. Now consider their next shipment they purchase 40 barrels at $30 a barrel – one would expect the fuel charge to decrease accordingly but, they still need to make up the difference for those 10 barrels.
I think my payment might just trip on it’s way to Belco this month…. This is ridiculous and totally unacceptable! We should not be held at ransom by Belco!!
Bermuda really is sinking to the status of a third world country. Can’t keep the lights on, buses and ferries out of service, roads and infrastructure crumbling but government ministers still driving around in their luxury sedans.
Why would a business even consider setting up a physical presence in Bermuda?
LOL! You obviously don’t travel often. In a 3rd world country that faulted transformer would sit there and rot until the end of time. From what I’ve been made to understand, the old transformer has been removed, a new transformer is on island and installation is beginning today.
And a transformer of this kind takes more than a year to procure..BELCO had the foresight to be able to replace it in a day? No good deed goes unpunished in his country. Running on 1979 equipment, won’t approve 2012 technology but they want 2012 performance. What is the saying about having cake and eating it?
You may have noticed that it’s earnings season which means a lot of very senior board member types that may not ordinarily be in Bermuda are on island at the moment. I’m sure a few eyebrows have been raised. If there’s anything those guys hate, it’s taking risks that are outside of the ones that they are specifically in buiness to take.
We are just lucky BELCO isn’t run by the PLP cuz it would be worse!
No Leca light, no phones, no money, no busses, the pipes is lincon and there’s no duct tape to fix it. FLUSH!