News update - June 2007
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Statement from Monlec - 21st June 2007
Our Minister has asked us to provide a quick update for the public on the current problems we are having with electricity supply.
Our basic problem is that we are woefully short of capacity – we have four diesel units at the power station at Brades, and we have had problems with all of them over the past few days.
Currently, we have faults on three units:1, 3, and 4
Unit 1: This unit suffers from periodic ‘trips’ or failure. This reduction in output means that we are unable to meet the needs of all our customers, and in response we have had to ‘shed load’ (i.e. cut off power to some areas) to balance supply and demand – currently, we are ‘load shedding’ alternately between Lookout and areas south of Woodlands. We are still working on resolving this problem and hope to resolve it this afternoon.
Unit 2: This unit had a problem last night, but this has now rectified. It is currently working at full capacity, though it is overdue for a service – the plan was to do the top end overhaul immediately after Unit 4 was back up, but we have been so dependent upon it that it cannot be released at present.
Unit 3: This has an ongoing problem with low output – but it must run to meet demand (approx 1700 kW during the day, 1400 in evening, 1000 at night). We would really like to fix this problem permanently, but until more capacity is available we cannot take it off line to do the necessary investigation and repairs.
Unit 4: This unit is currently not in operation – We took it out of service some weeks ago to do a scheduled overhaul on the engine, but when we tried bringing it back on line we found a faulty in its control and protective systems which means that we cannot operate it at all. We have ordered a new harness, and this is due on Tuesday
Since Unit 4 is unavailable, we are fast tracking Unit 5, the new unit that was ordered at Christmas. Unit 5 is on site, but not connected to the network yet (we are still awaiting delivery of the transformer and other necessary items). However, we hope to connect it up on a temporary basis this weekend, feeding its output through the Unit 4 transformer and switchgear into the network. This would be just a temporary hookup, but should provide us with a secure supply and breathing space to work on the other units.