Scheduled power outages upsetting residents
BVI Electricity Corporation (BVIEC) announced that there will be power outages on Sunday August 21, Tuesday August 23, and Thursday August 25, 2016 in several areas during the hours of 10 P.M. and 5:00 A.M. to facilitate the transporting of the three 8MW Wartsila generators.
During the operation, according to BVIEC, pockets of customers along the road from Port Purcell to Pockwood Pond will experience interruptions in service due to the required disconnection of lower hanging utility cables.
And residents can’t wait for the transporting of the engines to be completed, as they have been frowning at the thought of having to endure humid nights, filled with mosquitos.
“Why can’t they do that in the day when everyone is awake?” one woman told this news site after hearing the news. “Tonight is going to be so hot! And those mosquitoes! Urrrgg!”
According to the woman, who preferred not to be named, said she will be making plans to spend the nights at a friend’s house that is not being affected.
‘Complaints expected’
A Kim Pemberton wrote on the BVI Community Board that with the scheduled power outages, complaints from the public could be expected. “With this in mind let's see how many will come on complaining about no power, they hot, the power needs to come back on etc etc.”
Pamela Forbes responded: Of course I'm already complaining about no sleep coming. The temperature in my house right now is 90 at almost 9.”
Other bloggers, who commented on Facebook, included Nick Cook, who said: “So why the outages Tuesday night/Wednesday morning and today already? Always a good excuse, always something else's fault.”
Former Complaints Commissioner, Mr Elton Georges OBE also had some comments. “Don't understand why the entire highways should be closed on those days. Do you mean sections of the highways at particular times?”
The BVI Electricity Corporation responded on its Facebook page that “The long closures are required based on the scope of the work. A significant amount of preparatory work will be happening ahead of the engines on those nights, including the installation of temporary fly-over bridges, and relocation, disconnection, and reconnection of telecom and electric utility cables.”
A Dawn Brewley said she was sorry to hear some of the comments. “Yes it's not nice if you have been having loads of outages and I can understand your frustrations. I would be too. But tonight I don't think there will be any major disruption based on what they said. It's mainly where there are still overhead lines. Cause those are active live wires that would need to be turned off before they pass. I am happy for the upgrade even though none of us like the inconvenience. Ok. Hope we all have a good night and not drenched in sweat and the mosquitoes.”
The transporting of the first generator was actually delayed for nearly four hours due to "snags" along the way.
22 Responses to “Scheduled power outages upsetting residents”
Sweetie if that was possible they would have done that.
I stood with pride after midnight as I watched the generator make its slow journey to Pockwood Pond. I am eternally grateful to those men who risk their lives to keep power in our homes and business places day and night, working long hours, through storms and hurricanes. Salute those brave men, people. They do job that should make us all proud.
I salute the staff of the BVI Electricity Corporation, especially those hard-working men. Never mind the naysayers. I AM PROUD Of ALL OF YOU!!!!!