Montserrat government working to stabilise power supply
The Montserrat Government said it is working overtime to find a solution to the power outages currently facing the territory.
Six of the island’s seven-power generators are currently out of service for a number of reasons. This has forced Montserrat Utilities Limited (MUL) to engage in load shedding.
In a joint statement on Monday, Governor Sarah Tucker, Premier Joseph Farrell and Deputy Premier Samuel Joseph said MUL is working to stabilise the power supply, which is running on aged generators, before finding medium and long-term fixes.
An engineer was due to arrive in Montserrat yesterday from the British Virgin Islands to work with the MUL’s team. On Wednesday, another specialist will add his expertise to the restoration effort.
“These engineers will provide support and resilience to MUL and collectively should be able to get the number Six generator back up before the end of the week. Spare parts are being sourced for a further generator fix. Once located, we will expedite delivery to enable the number three generator to operate,” the leaders said.
They have asked the Programme Management Office (PMO) to source a backup generator, which Montserrat can lease, to bring some resilience. Once the generator is sourced, generator seven, the only operational power generation system at MUL, will be taken out of service for much maintenance work.
The generator is expected to be commissioned and online by November.
“We will undertake a full review to assess what is needed to sustain power. As a territory, we want to move to greener energy but to do so; we need to stabilise the current energy supply. We will take steps to do this. There will be a cost implication, and it will involve some challenging decisions, but prioritisation of use of funding is essential,” the leaders said.
0 Comment