PRESS RELEASE
Friday, October 10, 2014
For Immediate Release
NV GEBE explains about Power Outage cause
Cay Bay, St. Maarten – QUESTIONS from electricity consumers across St. Maarten concerning the unscheduled and untimely power outages that occurred over the past two days have finally been answered, as the NV GEBE issued a press release explaining the causes.
The electricity supply on Dutch St. Maarten was interrupted without notice around 1:29PM on Thursday (October 2, 2014) and was restored later that evening with the last cable switching in by 9:20PM.
The company’s release, issued (October 9, 2014), informed the general public that the outage caused the entire Southern side of the island to experience a total black out. This is the first total black out St. Maarten has experienced since October 14, 2012.
During the investigation it was established that a short circuit caused two engines to shut-down. This rapid change in power then triggered a domino-effect which brought down the entire plant. All of GEBE’s Engineers and Management immediately responded to the matter and started the lengthy process of safely restarting the power plant.
The first neighborhoods received power at 5:45 PM. Power was gradually delivered to all neighborhoods from then on with the last one receiving power at 9:20 PM.
The Managing Board appeals to frustrated electricity consumers to show patience in the face of this unexpected electricity interruption. Our technicians have been working around the clock since the incident to make sure that every client has power.