Yahneake Sterling, Staff ReporterTwo weeks after the nation was plunged into darkness for nearly 12 hours, the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) is reporting that the blackout was triggered by a fault on the high-tension 138kV transmission line from Bogue in Montego Bay to Duncans, Trelawny.
The company said this was caused by lightning. On July 15, homes and businesses experienced total loss of power due to what the JPS had said was a systems shutdown.
However, in a statement released to the media, the JPS also indicated that the blackout was caused by several factors, including: A failure of the protective mechanism at the Duncans substation to operate as it is designed to in response to this interference; the subsequent activation of the automatic protection system on several key generating units, which caused the generators to go off line, resulting in a dramatic, instantaneous reduction of about 40 per cent in the operating generation capacity.
"The resulting overload on the system caused two main 69kV transmission lines to trip, leading to the separation of the east and west sections of the power grid; and the power generation in the two separate sections of the grid was unable to maintain stability, and as a result the remaining units tripped, resulting in complete shutdown," the statement continued.
No system damage
JPS said that except for the Bogue-Duncans line, the system responded as designed, and as a result there was no power system equipment damage resulting from the incident. David Geddes' director of consumer and public affairs at the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR), confirmed that his office had received the report and was in the process of examining it.
"A technical team has been appointed to review the report and will identify areas that need further clarification and areas that additional information is required," Mr. Geddes told The Gleaner.
Three days after the incident, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller announced that her administration would be seeking the assistance of Canadian-based experts to probe the incident.
The Prime Minister had instructed Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell to seek help from the team of Canadian experts which investigated the major power outage in Ontario, Canada, last year to pinpoint the specific reason(s) for the systems failure. Yesterday Information Minister, Colin Campbell, refused to divulge information on whether the Canadians had arrived in the island.
