BELCO Friday Morning Restoration Update
BELCO said the latest count is 4113 customers out, and work will continue today [Oct 24] on major work areas, while several crews — which now include 19 linemen from the Caribbean — will be dedicated to restoring power for the remaining commercial customers and those who lost power as a result of Tropical Storm Fay.
BELCO said, “At 12:01am, Friday, October 24, there is a small increase in customers without power, due to portions of some circuits having to be de-energized during the course of restoration work. This is related to several incidents that affected our system.
“On Wednesday, we had a commercial vehicle collide with a mainline pole on Dock Hill. This resulted in a large outage and affected many customers that had service previously restored. Significant effort and time was extended to restore the circuit.
“Then on Wednesday and Thursday, as rainfall increased, we had salt, which had been previously deposited on the transformers, cross-arms, poles and insulators during both storms, create electrical conductive paths across the surface of the infrastructure, as the salt mixed with the rain water. These conducting paths heat up as current flows through them and can sometimes result in arcs of electricity striking across them.
“This, in turn, produces fires on the pole or transformer. This happened several times on Wednesday night and Thursday, and set back our restoration efforts, as some circuits needed to be shut down to remove the ignition source. This is an expected occurrence during storm restoration work, and we do expect that, depending on weather conditions, there could be several additional events.
“As a result, we are not producing a new list of major areas to be worked on for Friday, Oct. 24, as crews will continue working on areas previously listed. We will provide updates during the day, if new major areas are added to the list.
“In addition to major work areas, as previously mentioned, several crews will be dedicated to restoring power for the remaining commercial customers and those who lost power as a result of TS Fay.
“Those special assignments will be handled by CARILEC crews, working with BELCO staff. We now have 19 linesmen from CARILEC-member utilities working with us.
“They are enthusiastic and glad to assist in our restoration efforts, some having assisted in Bermuda after Hurricane Fabian, and others having worked alongside our crews, when BELCO sent linemen to their countries. The linemen assisting are from Bahamas, Belize, Barbados and Cayman.
There are 4113 customers out now, the breakdown by parish is below
- Pembroke 657
- Paget 391
- Devonshire 667
- Warwick 775
- Southampton 350
- Sandys 97
- Smiths 420
- Hamilton 354
- St. Georges 402
- Total 4113
The areas that experienced pole fires:
- Camp Hill
- Watlington Road East
- Knapton Hill
- Crawl
- Cox’s Hill
- North Shore, Devonshire
- North Shore, Pembroke
- Spanish Point
For all our coverage of Hurricane Gonzalo click here.
3281…3976…now 4113 customers without power. At this rate the entire island will be out by the end of November
Is it me or does the number of customers without power keep fluctuating?
The article explains why the number has increased.
So what is the reason why I’ve been out since 3am Wednesday morn after having power restored Monday morn???? These fires occurred Wednesday night and Thursday….why is my power gone then!
I hope BELCO is giving out food vouchers. Had there been a warning they were shutting off power again we could have prepared better…like NOT going grocery shopping and then having power shut off AGAIN thereby spoiling and wasting food and money!
Obviously it is because they are out to get you personally. They must really enjoy working day and night to repair hurricane damage. You know what, I bet they caused that, too!
Seriously, give them a break, they are doing the best they can. What are you doing to help?
oh please really, no one is saying BELCO is out to get anyone. Neither did anyone say they are not doing a great job. The comment was written out of frustration as a heads up would have been appreciated for those who had power restored and then woke up some hour in the morning to find that power had gone away. I’m sure if you would have gotten over excited and went out and spent enough money on groceries only to find out your power was gone again you would be frustrated too. Especially if there was no warning and you’re still waiting for it to return.
Pretty sure BELCO has already stated that you may lose power after having it restored as in some cases it will be required to cut power to safely carry out repair work. It’s something that will be happening for the coming weeks/months as they carry out permanent repairs in places where they have done temporary fixes just to get customers back online.
I’m expecting my power to go out again as they need to install a new transformer on a pole that had caught fire after power was restored in my area. There’s also a pole that needs to be replaced which was simply propped back up as it wasn’t urgently needing replacing.
It’s pretty obvious why the power went out. A pole caught fire, a transformer tripped, they had to de-energize a circuit to carry out repairs etc etc.
There was warning. They’ve already said you may lose power as they carry out repairs. Until all storm related damage is repaired, one should expect their power may come and go at random.
Just saying, if their power went out early Wednesday morning the warning actually came out AFTER their power went out if I remember correctly. Just saying
Approx 900 customers? Something is wrong with this picture then.
Been out since Fey and BELCO hasn’t even come by to check the problem. I wonder what all of their customer service employees are doing since they clearly have not been answering the phones for the past 3 days.
and Yet princess street is still being over looked, even though we are right in the heart of Hamilton.
The longer it takes to get back up and running the more they get paid.
some of Cottage hill still has no lights !
I know several people who have been restored recently, at least in the 24h before the latest rain. Strange that the overall number is rising.
Dear Colleagues,
I am currently out of the office.
I am on Island being punished by BELCO the Bermuda Power Company. If you have any influence please ask them to fix the power at my abode.
If this is Belco please contact me when you have deemed me special enough or humiliated enough to receive power.
Here’s some advice…if you see a BELCO truck in your area, be aggressive. By that I mean, approach them and let them know your power is out and ask them for help. Don’t just assume that because you see them in your neighbourhood they are coming to fix your power. My power was restored yesterday but only because my neighbour literally chased down the truck as it was leaving my area (after restoring power to homes further down my lane). I was told that the BELCO employee literally took a long tool and tapped an area on the pole (he didn’t even have to climb the pole) and my power was restored just like that. I understand that BELCO staff are working long hours but unfortunately they don’t appear to be working efficiently. Sorry to all those still without power but hopefully this bit of advice will help some of you.
Power on…whaoo..
Quick fix 30 mins…
hot shower. ..
sinky bay…