By Spokesman Newsroom
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Wednesday 21st August 2024) -The Minister of Public Infrastructure, Energy and Utilities with responsibility for the St. Kitts Electricity Company (SKELEC) Ltd., Konris Maynard, recently addressed the public on the dangerous challenges faced by SKELEC workers and also the suggestion of some people about putting underground infrastructure in light of outage issues caused by storms.
During an interview session on Freedom FM’s “SKN Today” with host Eboni Brandon on Tuesday 20th August 2024, he highlighted the dangers SKELEC workers encounter daily. He mentioned a recent incident whereby a male SKELEC employee was burned while on the job, despite following all safety protocols and wearing the appropriate protective gear.
“He’s now on leave because his
hands are burnt,” Maynard said, emphasizing that “we [as a people] take it for granted, the challenges that you’re [the workers] going to have.” Maynard also acknowledged the hard work of SKELEC staff, who have been working overtime to restore power across the island following the impact of Tropical Storm Ernesto. “It’s an extremely dangerous job, and I think sometimes we take for granted that it does take a bit of time,” he noted, adding that the restoration process is intensive, especially if there are numerous disconnections around the country.
“If you have 40 instances of disconnections around the country…multiply that by 40, and you see what the time is,” he added. Addressing public calls for placing the electrical infrastructure underground to protect it from storm damage, Maynard explained the high costs involved.
He further explained that while underground infrastructure is possible, it requires careful planning and substantial financial resources. “Some people will ask ‘Why don’t you put the infrastructure underground?’ Sure you know we can do that we can do anything SKELEC can do but the cost implications of that are humongous.
It costs at least three times the amount of money to put power [underground] than it is to put [above ground] so that would be a costly exercise. I’ve looked at some figures for instance and it’s in the hundreds of millions of dollars to do it.
You have to decide and pace yourself how you’re going to be able to do that but in the meantime we can take precautionary measures to make sure the impact is minimal on our households and our families.” Reflecting on the recent storm, Maynard urged the public to always prepare for the worst, citing the unpredictability of storm intensity due to factors like rapid intensification. “I saw a comment on Facebook the day after the storm of someone saying ‘Where is the electricity?
The food that you just buy [have] spoiled.’You know growing up, you were told because you don’t know what is going to happen you don’t purchase perishable food the day before a storm; you purchase nonperishable food because you just don’t know and that storm actually came closer than we expected. It hit us a little stronger than was expected …so you just don’t know.
He continued: “In this time especially, there’s something called rapid intensification of these storms because of how warm the water is, and in an instant the storm can change so don’t take any storm lightly. You have to… prepare as though you’re going to get a major hit and if you don’t get the major hit we are thankful we can recover faster but in this situation I think maybe this was a reminder for us that any storm that is coming we need to be prepared with our number of days of perishable food non-perishable food and I think NEMA puts out advice on this [advising] store enough water for a certain amount of time and also have your battery powered gear in the event that you do not have electricity and you know that’s just how it is.” Maynard has expressed his deep appreciation for the dedicated staff at SKELEC who worked tirelessly to restore power across the country following recent stormrelated outages.
“Well, firstly, I want to thank the hardworking staff at SKELEC for working overtime to get the power restored on the different feeders we have around the country. I believe that maybe before the storm or just in general, there might have been information that you can expect that power can be out from a minimum of two to three days at a minimum.” Additionally, he provided an update on the situation, noting, “I haven’t gotten a full report as yet, as they’re probably still doing their analysis.
The situation is that you had some downed lines in some communities, and in one community, I understand, there was a fire.” He explained that as a safety precaution, the main feeders were shut off while checks were conducted to ensure everything was in order before reactivating the lines. He further elaborated on the complexities involved in the restoration process, saying, “Sometimes when they put back on the feeder, even though someone might not have reported it online, then they realize another one can cause a reverse reaction and can chip the feeder etc.
But I think sometimes you take for granted the enormous amount of work that is necessary to do these things, to get things back online, especially if you do have damage.” The minister highlighted the varying impact of the storms across the island, explaining that “There are some times, depending on how the storm comes, that there is not much damage, right, depending on the location and where the storm passes. For instance, this storm passed on our south, so the south or southern part of St.
Kitts would have gotten more of the hit compared to maybe even Charlestown [in Nevis], which is on the western side.” Front Page Image: A linesman of the St. Kitts Electricity Company (SKELEC) Ltd. Seen out in the field during the ground scouting and assessing infrastructure on Wednesday 14th August 2024 following the passage of Tropical Storm Ernesto (SKELEC photo) – LOCAL NEWS – 3
