Articles - Soufriere lights up! High marks for LUCELEC!

Soufriere now has power! The system there was energised last night at approximately 10:45 when power was restored to the Fond St. Jacques and Fond Cacao feeders. The town centre was powered up a short time later at three minutes after midnight.

The LUCELEC crew, which had been landed in Soufriere via barge on Tuesday evening, worked all through Wednesday to restore the 66kV supply and the Soufriere Substation.  Given the particular plight of the people of Soufriere LUCELEC felt it was important to try to assist in bringing some sense of normalcy to the area by restoring the power there as soon as possible.

Areas such as Anse Chastanet, Fond Bernier, Palmiste and Crestlands have been energised.  The crew in Soufriere will be working to restore Baron’s Drive, New Development and Fond Cacao today.  Areas from Ladera to Etangs are still without power as there is some work still to be done there.

The section of the system just beyond Crestlands into Fond St. Jacques has been isolated for safety reasons, given the number of downed lines and poles in the area, although power is available to feed the area.

Other successes for LUCELEC on Wednesday included power being restored to Canaries and the section of the network between Marc Junction and Ravine Poisson, including Sarrot.  Progress was made also in getting power back to Ti Rocher, Trois Piton, Forestierre, Desbarra in the north.  And in the south, the feeders powering Saltibus, Roblot, La Maze and Montete in Choiseul were energised, as was the feeder to areas such as Banse, Macdomel and environs in Laborie.

Electricity has been restored to nearly 90% of the island as LUCELEC continues deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Tomas.  As at this morning (November 4) only parts of Soufriere, parts of Choiseul, and a few small pockets in the north and south of the island, have not been energised.

Those areas in the northern half of the island where power has not been restored include Millet, Venus, Tete Chimen (including the Roseau Dam), the Barre d’Isle and some parts of Guesneau, Piton Flore and Bagatelle, primarily due to difficulty in accessing those areas.

The areas in Choiseul which have not been energised include sections of the areas between Caffiere and Dugard (including Debrieul), from Morne Sion to Union Vale (including Delcer, Bois Dinde, La Pointe).

On Wednesday, a two-man crew from LUCELEC’s Mechanical and Electrical departments flew into the Roseau Dam with WASCO to assist in evaluating the situation there as LUCELEC continues to do all it can to restore power to the dam, which remains inaccessible via road.

There is still extensive work to be done in replanting and replacing poles and low voltage lines that were damaged during the hurricane in various areas.  Some of this work will continue into next week.  Several line crews are still working in the areas that have been energised to deal with some small pockets and individuals that are still without power due to smaller, localised faults and (service lines down, damaged transformers, meters pulled off, “my neighbour has power but I don’t”, type of faults).

Work on restoring the Union Substation which was flooded is continuing and it is expected that the Union Substation will be unavailable for approximately three weeks.  With Union Substation off line, the damage to the 66kV transmission lines on the west coast, and the damage to other pole and line infrastructure, LUCELEC has lost some flexibility in the network.  Therefore, in some areas LUCELEC is no longer able to supply power from multiple substations or feeders and some parts of the network are carrying more load than usual.

The company wishes to advise that due to the lack of flexibility in some areas, it may need to interrupt the power supply to some areas where power has been restored to complete some of the repairs.

LUCELEC advises that customers continuing to experience faults should call 457-4900 to report such faults.