Lights out

Parts of Barbados remain blanketed in darkness following an island-wide power black out which started shortly before 3 p.m. today following an explosion at Barbados Light & Power’s (BL&P) Seawell substation.

BL&P managing director Roger Blackman said the issue stemmed from an explosion at the Seawell electrical substation in Christ Church around 2:30 p.m.

“We responded immediately and the fire service also responded immediately to assist with containing the fire. We are happy to report there were no injuries but there was damage to our equipment,” he explained.

Blackman said they are still investigating the cause and extent of the accident in order to understand what happened, and to take measures to prevent a recurrence. By 7:30 p.m., he said they had already restored two-thirds of the island’s supply although the remainder might take some time before they areback on the grid.

“The length of time it will take to fully restore power is greater due to the nature and the location [of the accident] although there are various crews on site. This is the first time such an accident has occurred at this location with this type of equipment.”

Blackman added that preliminary information would be available within two weeks but a thorough “root cause analysis” would take longer. In the meantime, he advised the public to monitor both the media and social media for further updates. An advisory on their Facebook page also stated customers whose power had been restored could expeience more outages until Light & Power was at full generating capacity.

The outage took place less than an hour before the installation parade for Barbados’ new Governor General Dame Sandra Mason. Blackman acknowledged that the timing of the accident “could not have been worse” but stressed that power was restored at Parliament and Government House in time for the ceremony.

On social media, NATION readers shared their experiences, with the power outages in some communities lasting as long as nine hours.

  (CA/RA)

For more details on how businesses coped with the power outage, please see the DAILY NATION or our e-paper.

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