PHILIPSBURG:--- Minister of VROMI and shareholder representative of the utility company GEBE Christopher Emmanuel apologized to the people of St. Maarten on Wednesday for the recent spate of power outages (load shedding) caused by GEBE. The Minister in his apology message to the people said that government along with the Supervisory Board of GEBE is working on resolving the issues at GEBE which would lead to better consumer services rendered by GEBE. The Minister said that St. Maarten is not a ‘third world country’ and as such the people of St. Maarten should not have to deal with issues that people in ‘third world’ country are dealing with. He assured the community while asking for their patience that the issues at GEBE will be dealt with in the very near future. The Minister did not say exactly how much longer the community of St. Maarten will be plagued with the constant power outages.
SMN News reported in the past that the engines at the power plant including engine 20 that was mounted in December 2016 are not being serviced in a timely manner which has led to several engines shutting down. SMN News learned from well-placed sources that GEBE has a number of mechanics that are not fully equipped and or qualified working at the power plant. These mechanics it is understood are foreign workers that are working through job placement agencies. According to information provided to SMN News, the said mechanics damaged the crank shaft on engine 19 which had to be sent to the manufacturer for repairs.
During the past week's residents and the business community of St. Maarten is suffering heavily due to the constant load shedding. Some business persons told SMN News that the country is losing millions of dollars daily because of the constant power outages.
While management of GEBE has been informing the community of the load shedding they are yet to inform the people of the causes of the constant power outages.