SKELEC advises customers of scheduled power outages during this week’s load shedding protocol

By: Chaïra Flanders

Basseterre, St. Kitts, September 10, 2019 (ZIZ News): The St. Kitts Electricity Company (SKELEC) is advising customers of scheduled outages that will be ongoing this week to relieve power load after engineers discovered damage to the largest generating unit at the Needsmust Power Station on the weekend.

During an interview with ZIZ, Public Relations Officer (PRO) at SKELEC, Gawain Fraites, explained that the fault discovered led to the company’s decision to begin its load shedding protocol.

Mr. Fraites said SKELEC is therefore planning to cut the electricity in five areas on schedule across the island each day until the problem has been solved. He warned however, that there may be instances where an additional area may be added to the list at short notice to accommodate the load sharing process.

The PRO said repairs are being done and additional units are installed and works should be complete within a 14 day time period, adding that Engineers have also been sought to fast track repairs.

The PRO confirmed that updates on the progress of the repairs and planned outages will be shared via social media on the SKELEC Instagram page, the Facebook page and the company’s website.

He said that press releases will also be shared with media houses with updates at least by the end of every day.

On Wednesday September 10, load shedding was scheduled to take place between Challengers to Halfway Tree from 9 a.m and 12 pm, Lodge to Mansion from 10 a.m – 1 pm, New Road and St. Peters from 12:30 pm – 3:30 pm, Bird Rock and Frigate Bay from 3pm – 7 pm and then Industrial Site to Bird Rock from 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm.