By: Spokesman Newsroom
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Wednesday 7th September 2022) — The new minister with responsibility for Energy and Public Utilities, Konris Maynard, has shed light on the recent issues linked to power outage and load shedding exercises being conducted by the St. Kitts Electricity Company (SKELEC) Ltd. In a statement made on 6th September 2022, he explained that SKELEC has an installed nameplate capacity of 48.9 MW of power, but as of August 2022, SKELEC had a maximum available capacity of only around 27.8 MW — just slightly above the island’s peak power demand of about 26 MW. “This translates to a reality that if one or two of these remaining operational generators go out of service due to a fault or for maintenance, the ability for SKELEC to meet the peak power demand is compromised and therefore results in power outages.”
He outlined three identified solutions: (1) Repairs on some containerized standby generators by SKELEC maintenance crew; (2) Repairs on other containerized standby generators by specialized technicians of the manufacturer; (3) A combination of rental and purchase of additional standby generators so that generators can be adequately rotated to provide additional capacity while repairs are conducted. Maynard also explained the root cause: “Unfortunately, the last time there was any major investment in new power generation of fixed capacity generators designed to run constantly was in 2010 and 2011, and before that between 2007 and 2009. Similar investments should have been made in recent years but were not. This is despite many representations by SKELEC to do so over the last seven years in order to continue the plan of continuous upgrade of the power plant.” He expressed optimism that “the remaining load shedding exercises can end within a month” and encouraged continued support, understanding and patience from the general public.