Edmond Campbell, Senior News Coordinator
DISSATISFIED WITH initial reports from the Jamaica Public Service Company Ltd. (JPS) into the islandwide blackout on Saturday, the Portia Simpson Miller-led administration is seeking help from Canadian-based experts to probe the mysterious power outage.
After talks with the management of JPS yesterday morning, Prime Minister Simpson Miller emerged from the meeting declaring that she was still unhappy with the report presented by the beleaguered utility company.
SEEK HELP
The Prime Minister has instructed Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell to seek help from the team of Canadian experts who investigated the major power outage in Ontario, Canada, last year. The assistance is being sought to pinpoint the specific reason(s) for the systems failure.
"The Prime Minister insists that the country cannot be comfortable unless we know the specific reasons for the outage and that this matter is of serious national security and national defence consequences," said Minister of Information and Development, Colin Campbell, during yesterday's regular post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House, St. Andrew.
The Information Minister said that, as soon as the experts complete their investigation, the public would be informed of the findings.
At yesterday's meeting with the Prime Minister, the JPS management reportedly pointed out that, at the time of the blackout, the systems demand was 465.7 megawatts and the available generation capacity was 613 megawatts.
Prior to the systems failure, the area served by the West Kings House substation was the only area that was without power due to planned maintenance.
According to the JPS report, at the time of the power outage, serious lightning and scattered showers were reported in some sections of the country.
"However, whereas the company has not ruled out weather involvement, they have reported that, based on the system records, the first event which led to the shutdown was a fault on the Bogue/Duncans transmission line," Mr. Campbell said. "That circuit is critical to the network and ties in all generating stations."
Yesterday Opposition Leader Bruce Golding demanded that Government assign an independent team of investigators to determine the cause of the islandwide blackout.
He said the "unprecedented" collapse of the island's power supply had serious implications for the country and it was critical for an independent investigation to determine the cause as well as the steps necessary to prevent a recurrence.
"The JPS cannot be relied on to investigate itself in a matter as serious as this," Mr. Golding said. "Nor is the public able to have confidence in any report submitted by Mr. Paulwell given his mishandling of the cement crisis."
About 4:16 p.m. Saturday, most of the island lost power supply for about eight hours. Prior to this shutdown, customers have complained of intermittent power cuts across the island.
At a press conference called by the JPS management on Sunday, Thomas Dorsey, senior vice-president for customer operations, assured customers of the light and power company that there would be no disruptions in their power supplies this week, as no load-shedding activities were planned.
However, yesterday the company issued a release stating there would be load-shedding in several sections of Kingston and St. Andrew and Clarendon up to 9:30 last night.
