CAY BAY—The malfunctioning of three generators at the GEBE Cay Bay Power Plant resulted in certain areas being without electricity Monday, June 15, 2009. A broken water supply pipe on Diesel Generator #12 reduced the output by 10 MW, causing GEBE to resort to load shedding until the necessary repairs could be made to the diesel generator. Repairs consisting of major welding to the supply pipe were already underway and all electricity is expected to be restored by Monday evening.
The broken pipe supplied water to the generator coolant system which maintains the generator temperature and avoids overheating. The diesel generator was automatically shutdown to prevent further damage to the generator. As a result areas of Philipsburg, St. Peters, Ebenezer and South Reward were affected by the load shedding especially during the peak demand of power in the afternoon.
GEBE is already operating on a tight electricity production schedule since a fire seriously damaged a major diesel generator in 2008. Customers have already been experiencing some short outages during the past few days as a result of minor mechanical problems. These outages were quickly contained through immediate action by the GEBE technicians and therefore only lasted between 10 minutes to 1 hour and were limited to small areas on the island. The power plant is currently being expanded to house two new generators that will stabilize the supply however; the new generators will not be commissioned until December 2009.
