Islandwide blackout

AN APPARENT LOOPHOLE in the Barbados Light Power Company’s (BL) electrical system resulted in an island-wide blackout yesterday.

Sources close to the issue said a fault occurred at just the wrong time, plunging the system into chaos. Official reports say the fault occurred at the Whitepark Road substation around 5:55 a.m.

One official explained since there were fewer consumers drawing power at that time the system was not as “robust as it would have been at high or peak demand, resulting in cascading shut-downs until the entire island was without power.

Had that same fault occurred later in the day, that official explained, more personnel would have been on duty and the system would have been better prepared to correct itself. (CA)

Please read the full story in today’s Weekend Nation, or in the eNATION edition.