GRENLEC Assures Customers of Consistent Power Supply in the Aftermath of a Fire at its Power Plant

Monday, 8th June, 2009: The Grenada Electricity Services Ltd (GRENLEC) is assuring customers of our ability to meet the demand for power following a fire at our Queen’s Park generation plant on Sunday.  A mandatory shutdown of the power station was initiated which resulted in a nation-wide outage. 
The fire which started just after midday was quickly contained by the Fire Department.  Although investigations are continuing to ascertain the cause, we can confirm that the damage was limited to one of our large engines.
We are extremely pleased that we were able to restore power to the General Hospital and the Town of St. George within an hour and a half and to all customers within three hours of the outage.  
Responding to fears that there may be further interruptions, GRENLEC’s Chief Engineer, Mr. Clive Hosten has reiterated that the Company’s infrastructure is able to adequately provide for the electricity needs of the entire nation.  He noted that even with the minimal decrease in capacity, reserves are still well above the peak demand.

We again extend our apologies to the general public for the inconvenience, and encourage customers to contact us with any concerns or questions they may have about the incident.  Despite the inconvenience, many of our customers took the time to call to express concern for the safety of our staff and to commend the team for the quick restoration of service.

GRENLEC would like to publicly thank our Fire Department for their prompt response to our call.  They were on the scene within minutes of our call and had the fire under control in a very short time.

This emergency has left us with a reflection of the positive results that can be achieved through team work.  Our team on duty and many other staff members, who turned out to help, allowed us to achieve an effective emergency response and we commend them.