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Barbados Plunged Into Darkness, AGAIN

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Early on Sunday morning about 1AM, the BU household was plunged into darkness. A quick look through a window confirmed that as far as the eye could there was darkness. However, because it was so late we scurried off to bed earlier than planned, disappointed that our viewing of the Olympic broadcast was abruptly curtailed.

We freely admit that we have always had good things to say about the reliability in the service provided by the Barbados Light & Power Company Limited (BL&P) over the years. It is therefore of concern that in recent times we can easily recall three or four occasions when the island has suffered island wide outages. The most famous of the outages was the time a monkey was said to have caused the shutdown.

In all the explanations we have heard, Chief Marketing Manager of the BL&P Stephen Worme has been consistent in his message. Whether caused by monkey or bad weather it triggered a shutdown of the BL&P grid. It is good to know as a subscriber that the BL&P has a system in position that will trigger a shutdown to avoid severe damage to its network. Is the BU household being naïve by asking why should a monkey or the mild bad-weather experienced early Sunday morning have shutdown the BL&P electricity transmission?

We are asking questions which the average-man on the streets of Barbados is beginning to ask. Maybe we are being too hard on the BL&P. Maybe what has transpired in recent months is acceptable given the vagaries of operating a fossil powered company. To our layman way of thinking we appear to be experiencing a level of outages which is unacceptable in the year 2008.

More questions than answers. There was a time Chief Marketing Manager Stephen Worme would have responded directly to the concerns of the BU family. Unfortunately that door has been slammed shut. Hopefully the cloak of anonymity that BU affords can encourage some level of response.

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146 responses to “Barbados Plunged Into Darkness, AGAIN”

  1. Keith Headley Avatar
    Keith Headley

    BL&P is carrying a very high load. The question is why an overload in one section of the island should cause a shutdown in every other section.

    Unless every single piece of generating capacity is needed to keep the island electrified, load shedding (some people losing electricity) should not turn into island wide blackouts.

    Answers anyone?

  2. Carson C. Cadogan Avatar
    Carson C. Cadogan

    The more profit the BL&P make the worst the service is becoming.

  3. Chris Halsall Avatar
    Chris Halsall

    If I May…

    Just for the record…

    Barbados Advocate (2008.08.18): Page 3 (lower-right-hand corner): Headline : “Power restored after island-wide cut”:

    “…According to Chief Marketing Officer of the Barbados Light and Power Power (BL&P’s) Stephen Worme, the outage occurred after midnight when an electrical transformer at a distribution substation at Spring Garden was damaged because of lighting strikes due to inclement weather that had been effecting the island during the night.

    Barbados Nation News (2008.08.18): Page 4 (Lower columns four and five (of six)): Headline: “BL&P Probing cause of outage”:

    “…Stephen Worme… “This occurred at a time of inclement weather and a series of lightning strikes…””

    Can *anyone* confirm any sounds of thunder Saturday night? Sunday morning???

    Can *any* of our meteorologists confirm or deny these claims?

    Just putting this out there — a lighting strike is a fairly energy intensive event. A bit like a nuclear explosion. Easy to confirm, or deny…

    Is *anyone* willing to step forward to do so?

    (This is, if you’ll forgive me, what is known as an empirical experiment…)

  4. Chris Halsall Avatar
    Chris Halsall

    Let me please present another possible solution space:

    Perhaps we’re being lied to…

    Please consider this. Deeply…

  5. Liar Avatar
    Liar

    Do you expect them to use the monkey on the power lines story again? Nah.

    This time the outage was caused by Zeus.

  6. Chris Halsall Avatar
    Chris Halsall

    @Liar: “This time the outage was caused by Zeus.”

    LOL. But, alas, this would assume that the BL&P’s people had actually read the “Iliad”. Or at least, Dan Simmons’s interpretation of same within “Ilium” and/or “Olympos”.

    Perhaps I’m being cynical, but I think the above is asking too much…

  7. David Avatar
    David

    Can anyone answer the question posed in the blog and which Keith Headley touched on. If the BL&P grid was struck by a lightning bolt as reported should their system have been affected by 100% failure or should the trauma to their system have been contained?

  8. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Seems like the commissioning of the two Hyundai 30 megawatts generators @ Spring Garden which are supposed to generate all the power for the island is failing miserably.

    There doesn’t seem to be any redundant power links, so once there is a problem @ Spring Garden there is a problem in BIM.

    There is real Garrison ‘backup’ since the 30 mwatt generators were supposed to be all efficient. I hope I am wrong about this but so far this is what I am getting.

  9. Avatar
    Anonymous

    **** There is no real Garrison ‘backup’ *****

  10. art Avatar
    art

    I saw a bright flash through the window and then the UPS started to beep.

    It must be a conspiracy.

  11. John Avatar
    John

    Liar // August 18, 2008 at 8:43 pm

    Do you expect them to use the monkey on the power lines story again? Nah.

    This time the outage was caused by Zeus.
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++

    … besides, all self respecting monkeys would be asleep at that hour of night/morning.

  12. art Avatar
    art

    Unless they have babies!

  13. Chris Halsall Avatar
    Chris Halsall

    @art…

    If I may please quote Marvin the Martian: “Where is the kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom!”

  14. The People's Democratic Congress Avatar
    The People’s Democratic Congress

    Talk about arrant nonsense being spewed out these days by many persons in Barbados that should know better, this time around such plain ignorance in a letter by one Gordon Burke in yesterday’s ( Monday, 18 th August 2008 ) Barbados Business Authority, pg. 6.

    Of course, in our dealing frontally with this letter which appeared under the caption: TAX SYSTEM ACTS AS A BUFFER, there are three main outrageous and asinine propositions that PDC does feel the need to explode and expose for the nonsense that they really are, and which in doing such it is our hope that we could help the newspaper recognize that by publishing such filth only in truth and in fact subjects it to monstrous ridicule and pity. Here are these very terrible propositions and our fair responses to them:

    1) Mr Burke makes the very naive and silly assumption that our TAXATION SYSTEM is fair because, et al, it makes those who earn more pay a higher rate.

    We say: Mr Burke, Sire, any system that wickedly steals portions of the incomes and properties of the relevant people, busineses and others in Barbados CANNOT be fair. Hence, because this TAXATION SYSTEM in Barbados does wickedly steal portions of the incomes and properties of the relevant people, busineses and others in Barbados, DOES mean that it is totally unfair and evil to those who it so terribly violates and trangresses. And, Sire, you dont pay TAXES!! Portions of your money-income are stolen from you by the state!!

    2) Mr. Burke makes another puerile and inept assumption, this time, that this murderous TAXATION SYSTEM acts as a buffer between those at the top and those at the bottom.

    We say: that this kind of errant unscientific proposition completely destroys the earlier assumption that he made that this wicked and evil TAXATION SYSTEM is fair. This TAXATION SYSTEM CANNOT be fair and just when NOT ONLY does it help to maintain the severest of disparities among the social and income categories within the country, BUT ALSO when it is primarily used as a destructive totalitarianist weapon by the state, and with the open and tacit support of esp. many elites in this place, to suppress and oppress the greater upward mobilities and aspirations of the masses and middle classes of this country, primarily. What we see therefore is little upward progressive movement of the masses and middle classes in Barbados. Inspite of ALL the hogwash that Mr. Burke rubs all over his face that TAXATION is fair and just, the majority of income and wealth in Barbados still remain eminently concentrated in the hands of about 4 per cent of our population. Check the study that was done in early 2000s on the state of the black middle class in Barbados by three UWI academics, for further insights into how our income and wealth distribution still remains largely unaffected by this odious TAXATION SYSTEM. And,

    3) Mr Burke makes the assumption that it is through TAXATION that “the unemployed, underemployed, and low income earners are able to enjoy a high standard of health care, adequate and regular transportation through the Transport Board, and receive reasonably priced water, free education up to the University of the West Indies and if they suffer from a chronic illness or even HIV/AIDS, free medicine”.

    We in PDC respond: This TAXATION SYSTEM has, is and will never provide such social/welfare and infrustructural needs and the value that is attached by many people in Barbados to such needs. In fact, the tasks of providing such are left to the relevant human beings, material, mineral and technological resources and social/welfare systems to help provide such at whatever times. However, yes, much of the money that is used to compensate the relevant people and businesses involved in the provision of these needs comes through this evil TAXATION SYSTEM, and at a financial cost that is so staggering, bewildering and obscene.

    If one Mr. Burke were to take a proper look at the Annual Statistical Digest 2007 of the Central Bank, he would realize that from, say, 1990 to 2006, there would have been serious correlationships between the higher the TAXATION THEFTS THAT ARE CARRIED OUT BY GOVERNMENT and the slower the rate of GDP growth of Barbados, and between the LOWER the TAXATION THEFTS THAT ARE CARRIED OUT BY GOVERNMENT, and the faster the rate of GDP growth of the country. What this information ( GDP and GOVERNMENT TAXES ) also shows is that DLP and BLP Governments, because of the imposition of higher levels of TAXATION to slow the rate of growth of GDP ( what ever stupid reasons are put forward by them), are in truth and in fact the primary causes of localized recessions.

    So localized recessions are among the greatest costs of this henious TAXATION SYSTEM in Barbados. And NOT to forget the fact that the rate at which the government’s debt has grown from, say, 1990 ( BDS $ 1.8 Billion) to 2006 ( BDS $ 4.9 Billion), means that THIS TAXATION SYSTEM is one of the driving forces behind this alarmingly high government debt.

    Finally, at this time we feel that we have done a little to show Mr. Burke and others how fallacious he and some other individuals can be in providing so-called reasons why TAXATION should continue to help wickedly oppress and degradate many people, busineses and other entities in Barbados. Too, we strongly feel that Barbados Businesss Authority owes the people of Barbados a more rationalist scientific and balanced approach than it has been adopting to printing and disseminating certain types of base information to the public of Barbados.

    PDC

  15. reluctant nonbeliever Avatar
    reluctant nonbeliever

    pdc=windbag

    i live in st thomas

    there were definitely a few peals of thunder and a couple of lightning flashes – (though i noticed them after the lights had gone out)

    why should Chris Halsall doubt this?

    weirdo…

  16. David Avatar
    David

    Should it not be at times like these that our engineers, especially those in the Barbados Association of Professional Engineers (BAPE) should step forward to enlighten the public? If they being their expertize to bear then it quickly eliminates the speculative positions which often emerge on these occasions. Perhaps we could accept the silence of those engineers in BAPE who currently work at the BL&P, conflict of interest and all that you know.

  17. Peltdownman Avatar
    Peltdownman

    I live in St Andrew and also heard thunder in the distance. The power went out in the middle of the night Saturday/Sunday, people. Apart from the uncomfortable heat due to the lack of fans, it was no big deal. Midday on Tuesday would be another matter altogether. Slow news day?

  18. David Avatar
    David

    @Peltdownman

    Are you deliberately missing the point of this blog? We are not questioning whether there was thunder. We are making a very simple observation i.e. we have had a few islandwide outages recently and we wondered whether the technology should not be configured to contain any ‘shedding’ which needs to occur.

  19. OMG Avatar
    OMG

    Electricity went out in St. Michael again on Monday evening for about 3 hours. When residents called to report that this was the fifth occurrence in the Goodland area for the month the BL&P representative stated that a wire was down at the Nation.

    I noticed the Nation is off line this morning.

  20. Chuckles Avatar
    Chuckles

    BL&P should install a new plant down by Peltdownman to service load centers in St. Lucy, St. Peter, St. Andrew, St. Joseph, St. Thomas and St John. This would make a true GRID system a reality in Barbados. In the event of a problem with one of the power plants, the other would be able to feed load centers islandwide, even if at lower power. Preventative maintenance at least once a month, with S.G shutting down and St. Andrew taking over the load and vice versa, would help speed up fault diagnosis and correction when monkies and lightning bolts shut down any one system.

  21. PDC Sucks Avatar
    PDC Sucks

    I wonder how the PDC proposes to pay for social services and infrastructure without tax revenues

  22. Inkwell Avatar
    Inkwell

    It is evident that the PDC is so firmly against taxation that it did not make use of the “free” educational opportunities it has provided. Now that is standing up for what you believe in.

  23. The People's Democratic Congress Avatar
    The People’s Democratic Congress

    On pages 22 and 23 of the 2008 Election Manifesto of the Democratic Labour Party, this party proceeded to fool readers about ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT and some NEW MACRO-ECONOMIC PARADIGM.

    In those regards, the author or authors bellowed: ” By any standard, the Barbados Economy is small, open and vulnerable. While emphasis is usually placed on the disadvantages attendant on smallness, limited spatial parameters afford a degreee of flexibility in the management of our economic fundamentals. We need, however, to recognize that the rapidly changing global economic environment of the Twenty-first Century presents particular challenges to small economies. The impending cessation of preferential market access; the move towards full reciprocity through the accelerated liberalization of domestic markets; and the removal of all remaining barriers to the movement of finance and investment capital, are all conspirig to narrow the scope of our policy responses.

    Against these realities, a Democratic Labour Party Barbados government will give maximum priority to the creation of a macro-economic environment that stresses the folowing:

    * Fiscal prudence in the allocation of expenditure and the absorption of revenues;

    * Protection of the fixed exchange rate regime through careful management of the fiscal and external current account deficits;

    *A tightly managed debt accumulation strategy targeted at the reduction in both domestic and foreign components of the national debt;

    *The attainment of full employment through the private sector’s response to new domestic entreprenerial and investment oportunities in traditional and more importantly new industrial, cultural and knowledge sectors”.

    Well, the facts are that in almost every area of these central planks underpinning the DLP Government’s macro-economic strategy for Barbados, there are clear signs that the DLP Government has TOTALLY LOST ITS WAY AND HAS LOST ALL SENSE OF DIRECTION in regard of the proper management of the productive and financial affairs of this country, and, as a matter of fact, just like the last wretched BLP Government had been able to do.

    Check these facts: in relationship to the first plank above, this failing DLP Government proceeded in April of this year to brutally increase the cost of diesel, gasolene, kerosene and LPG on the backs of the broad masses and middle classes of people of Barbados, knowing full well that that would lead to savage increases in the cost of living and in the cost of doing business in this country. And, in July of this year it proceeded, too, to cruelly impose further TAXATION burdens on the masses and middle classes of people of this country, kowing full well that such will lead to a contraction in the rate of so-called economic growth of the so called Barbados economy. What can therefore be prudent about these actions esp. when the governor of the Central Bank, Dr. Marion Williams stated in her half year review for this year that so-called economic growth for the first half of this year was estimated to be a miserly 1.4 per cent? What is so prudent about these actions? Tell us, Mr. Prime Minister?

    Check these facts: in relationship to plank two above, this vindictive DLP Government has as yet to propose any measures to seriously reduce government spending in this country or to drastically reduce the size of the state in this country. NOTHING AT ALL. NOTHING AT ALL. Furthermore, in the so-called Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure for the period 2008-2009, this wayward and ineffective government has proposed to spend a staggering BDS $ 3.2 Billion for this financial year – 4.6 per cent more than the estimated total expenditure for the previous year, and proposes to give away bus rides to school children, and to increase the marketing budget of the Barbados Tourism Authority. But, you know something this Government has already started to ask Parliament for the granting of supplementaries!! Yes, as recently as about a wek ago!! Say it for fiscal prudence!! Also in relationship to plank two above, this DLP Government, which is already being characterized by serious flip flopping and disagreements in the Cabinet, has itself DONE NOTHING PURPOSEFUL to rein in the external current account deficit of the country, by, say, putting the right incentives in place to boost our exports. All the while the Governor of the Central Bank, in her said review of the first half performance of the so-called Barbados economy in 2008, told us that the Central Government recorded a larger fiscal deficit of BDS $ 294 Million, almost twice the size of the deficit for the similar period the year before. What a sick joke this DLP Government is playing on the people of Barbados!!! Futhermore, with regard to the external current account deficit, the Governor revealed in the said review of the first half of the year 2008, that this deficit was BDS $ 164.5 Million, about BDS $ 16.5 million more than the deficit registered in the first half of 2007. What a cruelty this DLP Government is meting out to the people of Barbados.

    Check these facts: in relationship to plank three above, this cavalier DLP Government is also NOT doing ANYTHING to reduce the Government Debt of this country. Right now, the Government Debt of this country is almost BDS $ 5 Billion, if it has NOT yet surpassed that amount. Yet, the Government recently issued, according to the Barbados Business Authority quoting some local stock market broker, two BDS $ 100 million treasury notes. What a sick and terrible joke, too!!

    And, finally, check these facts: in regard of the last plank plank four, this DLP Government is, of course, pursuing some so-called economic and financial policies that will be certain to, instead of reducing unemployment levels further in the country, help bring about greater unemployment in the country. Check the TAXATION/Fiscal policies of this DLP Government with regard to the same cruel increases in fuel costs in the country and the same damned increases in road taxes and sundry other taxes in this country. These are bound to help bring about unnecesary reductions in aggregate demand in the country, and thus serious declines in investment and expansion in business activity in the country, and thus employment as well. So, it is no wonder that the same Dr. Williams in the said half year review expects that employment is going to increase for 2008 albeit still remaining in single digits.

    Finaly, what we have seen is that this DLP Government, since coming to office on the 15 of January of 2008, has been doing so much to undermine the very planks that it said that it would use to create some joke macro-economic environment for Barbados. Added to that, this DLP BLATANTLY LIED to the people in order to help it win the last election, when it told the people, et al, it was going to reduce the cost of living, when it told the people it was going to remove VAT from off electricity, and when it told the people that it was going to create 500 homes in 500 days. Surely, this DLP is fast becoming unfit to manage the political , social, economic and financial affairs of Barbados.

    PDC

  24. Carson C. Cadogan Avatar
    Carson C. Cadogan

    CHRIS HALSALL

    I think maybe another “Green Monkey” was on the loose.

  25. Wet pillow Avatar
    Wet pillow

    Electricity went off again last night. Twice in couple days. Somebody sleeping at the wheel at BL&P even as they fleece us.

  26. art Avatar
    art

    Hi zere Chris

    Zere vaz no kaboom boom, but ze dog she vaz trimbling and quvite discombobulated, vich tells me she had perzeived un vibration unknown.

  27. J Avatar
    J

    Yes Chris I was up at the time, blogging on Barbados Free Press as it happens and yes there was thunder and lighting.

  28. J Avatar
    J

    Dear People’s Democratic Congress:

    Can you please use simpler language. I studied English up to university level and I can’t understand a word that you are saying. PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  29. J Avatar
    J

    Dear Inkwell:

    Re your post on August 19th at 8:29 a.m. You have me here on the floor nearly de’dding with laugh.

  30. J Avatar
    J

    Got the electricity bill tis morning. It is $102.58. I have to admit that I am real, real CHEAP and that I freak when the electricity bill goes over $100.00. I don’t like the idea of sending my good money to those foreigners and the folks at BL&P. I don’t like it at all.

    Maybe I’ll have to start going to bed at 9:00 p.m. again and all lights out. No blogging after 9:00 p.m.

  31. Peltdownman Avatar
    Peltdownman

    J, one way to save on electricity is to have more power outages!

    Chuckles, put a generating plant down by me and then watch the monkey problem!

    David, Imade the point about thunder because previous bloggers had intimated that they thought BL&P were lying.

  32. The people must be first not politricks Avatar
    The people must be first not politricks

    I asked the PDC to use English but they continue to speak Bullshish ( a form of English used by aspiring politicians to make the masses feel they are saying something when indeed they are saying nothing (ask mia). I do not even bother to read anything they write anymore. One sentence is enough to work your brain tired.

  33. RE Engineer Avatar
    RE Engineer

    Firstly I have to say that yes there was thunder and lightning and yes this could have caused the problem. I do not suspect is has anything to do with the 30MW turbines failure. Persons need to understand that electricity generation plants are highly complex and expensive devices. As was said to the media they suspect it is a problem with the main transformer at Spring Garden, which contrary to all the skepticism could possibly knock out the entire island.

    Power blocks are usually set up in a ring circuit format so that in the event of a fault one ring can support most if not all of the consumers should another circuit become damaged. A problem arises when the fault is near or at a transformer because it causes the entire generation block to trip out. Trying to be as ‘non-technical’ as possible here. This simply means that it cuts of power to all the circuit to protect generating equipment plus a non- operational transformer means no electricity can be sent to any of the distribution substations which simply means no juice to the entire island. And that is what possibly caused an islandwide black out. If this fail safe was not in place, damages could occur to the generating equipment which would take much much much longer to repair.

    What everyone must understand is that things are generally not this simple to diagnose, in the same way doctors don’t always know what their patients have, engineers cannot always determine the exact cause of things. All I can stress is that is quite complex and not as 1,2,3 as many seem to believe.

    I also have to mention that for a blackout of that magnitude and a damaged main transformer the recovery time of 4 hours is quite good. I honestly find Barbadians to be terribly out of it sometimes, just read any of the CARILEC reports one of these days and they would realise we have the most reliable electricity system in the Caribbean and times better than most developing countries worldwide. Speak to our neighbours from Trinidad, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Vincent, Dominica etc and find out how often they get outages. I find it quite interesting the above article states that one can remember 3 or 4 times that have occurred in recent times. I would like to get an idea of what the public expects. Because from an engineering perspective I see it as quite acceptable in the world of power generation, especially in a country like Barbados. And I know many would say we pay a lot but we actually have the lowest rates behind Trinidad and Jamaica who happen to have oil, gas, etc. We do not.

    As for the previous monkey statement that was just plain silly, plausible but improbable. When you don’t know just say you don’t know. The public can be cruel but that just made things worse. Even if it were a monkey I would not say that to the Barbadian public. That was just a breech of good sense I believe.

  34. Chris Halsall Avatar
    Chris Halsall

    @reluctant nonbeliever: “there were definitely a few peals of thunder and a couple of lightning flashes – (though i noticed them after the lights had gone out) why should Chris Halsall doubt this?”

    Please forgive me. My background has taught me to doubt *everything*! Or at least, until claims have been independently verified… And even then, the “quantum uncertainty field” reduces, but is never eliminated…

    Please let me also point out that with a single relatively inexpensive sensor, one can confirm a lightning strike occurred somewhere (and somewhen) nearby.

    With two such sensors, one can determine a three dimensional circle (the intersection of two spheres) within which the strike occurred, and the exact time it took place. If this was a ground-strike, mapping this on the known surface of the earth provides two possible locations for same.

    With three such sensors, one can determine with absolute certainty the singular location of the strike (the intersection of three spheres), and the exact time.

    I’m wondering — do we here in the Caribbean have the ability to derive such triangulation of events?

  35. Q Avatar
    Q

    LOL @

    Inkwell—8:29 –am

  36. Chris Halsall Avatar
    Chris Halsall

    @BU.David: “Should it not be at times like these that our engineers, especially those in the Barbados Association of Professional Engineers (BAPE) should step forward to enlighten the public?”

    Let me please present a bit of empirical data…

    There are, currently, three locations here in BIM able to generate power and feed into the Barbados electrical grid:

    1. Spring Garden. (BLP.SP).
    2. Garrison. (BLP.Gar).
    3. Airport (BLP.Air).

    The above three data points are derived entirely from outsider’s knowledge. The “short-forms” are my personal nomenclature.

    Would anyone care to expand on the above? For example:

    1. Lat, Long, Alt.
    2. Generation compatibility. (i.e. MW)
    3. Generation history. (i.e. MWh/month)
    4. Generation availability. (i.e. hours from notification to availability)

    With regards to point 1. immediately above, I do note that for all of the current locations, that Alt. is not that far from current sea level.

    Ergo — how well prepared is Barbados for a serious storm surge?

    For the record, please note that I have given a little bit of information above. And I have asked a few questions.

    A question: will any of my above questions be answered?

  37. David Avatar
    David

    @RE Engineer

    Thanks for the explanation but we have to ask you why should Barbados benchmark the reliability of its power distribution with Dominica, Trinidad and others of that group?

  38. John Avatar
    John

    I think one of the main reasons that the generating sites are so close to sea level is to easily access large volumes of fresh/brackish water from the fresh water lens for cooling.

    The water then needs to be disposed of.

    I guess that is why the sea to the north of the Rum Refinery is so warm. Maybe it also explains the Hot Pot at the Pebble.

    I’ll have to take a look at the Airport site and ask around to understand what is done for cooloing.

    If a storm surge were to take out Spring Garden and the Garrison, it would probably also affect most of our tourism plant as well.

    If it ever got as high as the airport, well, ……. the prohets’ predictions would have come to pass and there would not be very many of us left.

    The Airport is at an elevation of 180 feet.

    If a storm surge/tsunami got up there ….. man … Belle Pumping Station is at 120 feet, so not only would our electricity supply be obliterated, and that includes all the distribution poles and HT cabling overground, so too would our main water supply stations.

    We ( whoever is left) would be starting back from scratch.

    I’ve been through this scenario in my mind before and I don’t think it is one that can be planned for ….. apart from making your peace with God.

  39. Tony Hall Avatar
    Tony Hall

    RE Engineer,
    A lot of what you said seems plausible but I think a generating plant needs to be built in the north of the island to compliment the existing one. Maybe the grid is being worn down by the increased use of electricity. Remember a couple years back AC units were mainly used by commercial entities but now several households are doing the same. We have had our fair share of power outages here in New York this summer too. It’s not something you can blame on one element. It’s a combination of things.

  40. Chris Halsall Avatar
    Chris Halsall

    @John: “I think one of the main reasons that the generating sites are so close to sea level is to easily access large volumes of fresh/brackish water from the fresh water lens for cooling.”

    Do you think (aka “Imagine”), or do you know?

    I, personally, “imagine” this is *not* the case. That instead the three locations generate their power using air cooling.

    But, of course, as usual, I’m more than willing to be proven wrong…

    As an aside, let me please observe that anyone with access to Google Maps could provide the Lat and Long of my above three data points. Anyone with Google earth could also provide Alt.

    Anyone care to?

    Just putting that question out there…

  41. Carlos Avatar
    Carlos

    What a ‘Bunch’ of arrogant, ungrateful, people we in B’dos have become?

    With all of the wonderful blessings that our ‘Little’ Island has been bestowed with, which most of us still take for granted, instead of being thankful, all most of us can do is to complain at the slightest inconvienience, “Barbados Is Plunged Into Darkness AGAIN”

    Man, just waite till all of our ARROGANT, UNGRATEFULNESS stacks up against us; as far too many people from all walks of life, who don’t know each other, over many years, have all had strikingly similiar ‘Dreams/Visions’ that our ‘Dear’ land will be visited with a terrible, catastrophic, ‘Tsunami’ the likes of which will make this short BL&P ‘Darkness’ look like childs play!!

    You know what, part of this ‘Judgment’ will in no small measure, be caused by our ‘ARROGANT’ Pride, the root cause of all SIN; REPENT, BARBADOS, for we ain’t see nothing yet!

    DARKNESS, is used in God’s Word, the Bible, as a metaphor for SIN, which is rampant throughout our land, it knows absolutely NO colour, class, nor creed, as it permeates the ‘Heart’ of all mankind!

    Mankind, prefers to live in ‘Darkness’ (SIN), than come to the true ‘LIGHT’ of the world, The Lord Jesus Christ.

  42. Citizen Avatar
    Citizen

    I live in town and the electricity went off at 1:05am (Monday morning) There were some lightning and thunder before and after, but not much that I noticed. The following night (Monday night) a part of Bridgetown I saw was dark or in relative darkness. A lot of street lights were also offline at least from Cheapside through Fontabelle, including the bus terminals there and Hincks Street down towards the port. I didn’t check all around town to see where else. There were two BL&P trucks by a street pole in Fontabelle and saw a BL&P man on top of the pole doing some work.

    Why should lightning take out the entire island? Are there no redundancies in the network? I realize these outages in Barbados and elsewhere in the world seem to be recent happenings. Are our grids becoming overloaded? Is this a conspiracy? Secret testing of some kind? Is old equipment finally breaking down? New equipment not meshing with the old? The truth is out there! That monkey cost me a laptop – it damaged the motherboard! But hey, that’s my fault for forgetting to connect my laptop to my surge protector. Man, I need a UPS.

  43. RE Engineer Avatar
    RE Engineer

    @David
    Whenever one does a comparison it is usually done with systems that have similar characteristics. In the case of power generation most Caribbean islands have similar characteristics in terms of generators types and sizes, generating capacity and distribution system configuration. It would be somewhat unrepresentative to compare us to places like the US where single plants generate 500MW and above, (we have 150MW spread out over 3 plants) and who have highly complex distribution systems that have high tension set ups at over 300kV we current use 24 to 69kV. Yourself and all interested can go to http://www.carilec.com and in the Technical Services section read some of the reports to see where we stand in the Caribbean and also see the differences between us and larger nations, namely the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand. Duration of outages in these countries on average from 1 to 4.5 hours as the length of a major (system) outage. This suggests that even compared to larger nations we are quite within those limits.

    @Chris & John
    Power plants are built traditional in coastal areas for many reasons some of these include, the availability of sea water for cooling, the possibility of use of sea water to out fires should there be any explosions etc and also in the event of a natural disaster and road blockages, fuel would be able to be transported by barge to the generation site, there are many other reasons but those were the first to come to mind. Another aspect is that with steam turbines large amounts of cooling water are needed to condense the steam back to water so this meant that almost all steam plants had to be located near a large body of water to use as a heat sink. With the installations at Seawell and Garrison (not sure if Garrison still generates because the generators there were to be systematically decommissioned upon the introduction of the new low speed diesels generators and only used for back up) they smaller use diesel or gas generators that need less cooling water than the equipment at Spring Garden so they cooling towers and do not need to be located near a large body of water. Chris I would have to check through my notes to give you the info you want about generation, can’t promise I would find it though.

    @Tony Hall & Citizen
    I am not sure if you guys remember the large blackout that occurred in the states a few years back, I believe it was in 2003 or 2004. There is something called the cascade effect, it has nothing to do with faulty distribution systems or extensive use of AC equipment, though these things may indeed exacerbate the problem. Electricity cannot be stored at large generation facilities so it must be used as it is produced, which means supply must closely follow demand and that is the job of generation control equipment. It is put in place to assure that the generators produce exactly the amount of electricity needed. This is done relatively easily when load increases and decreases are not sudden. If they are sudden that is when a mechanism called load shedding kicks in and power is shut off to certain areas until the generators can match the demand, this is generally what happens when you get short power outages that last 5 to 15 mins. Now if this increase or decrease is extremely sudden which can be caused by something like lightning damage to a distribution component then the systems sheds an area very quickly to avoid damage to generators. But due to the nature of electronics, different circuits tend to respond at different times and this can cause the so called cascade effect.
    For clarity let us say we have 3 generators (1,2&3) feeding 3 sections of Barbados (A,B&C). All generators are wired in such a way that some of the areas they send electricity to overlap in such a way that generator 1 services all of section A but can service part of section B should the need arise. Generator 2 services section B but can service a portion of section A as well, likewise 3 supplies section C as well as the possibility to supply a portion of B this is called system redundancy and please note each generator has its prescribed section but can supply lets say 25% of the power needed in another section if needed. Now in a normal load shed part of section A’s circuitry is supposed to close off so as to allow generator 2 to supply a manageable 25% of section A’s load along with load from its respective sections (B). But clearly generator 2 can only handle a portion of A’s load cause they it’s designed to supply only its section (B) with only a moderate surplus being available. Now a sudden fault occurs on section A triggered by a lightning strike. Generator 1’s protective circuitry causes it to shut down quickly. But the component that is used to shut off 75% of section A’s load closes too slowly. Therefore Generator 2 feels the 100% load of the section it is to supply (B) along with 100% that of A (remember it is only designed to supply with 25% of A’s load), unable to cope it sheds loads in sections A & B almost instantaneously now generator 3 feels the loads of sections A, B&C and is unable to cope so it too shuts down. Result: no power at all in sections A, B, or C. Now that was a serious simplification and it is still a bit long winded. I hope it helps to clarify the matter. It is not something that can be explained in a simple press statement. It is just an anomaly that occurs with any piece of machinery.

  44. David Avatar
    David

    @RE Engineer

    Again the BU family thanks you for explaining what is a very technical subject. As you know Barbados has always separated it self from the pack by fight in a higher weight class. The same has happened on the telecommunications side of the business. The fact is in recent times we have had more of our share of outages and we have been forced to ask the hard questions. The BL&P has had its own way for sometime with the public paying little interest in what happens in that company. We are also mindful that BL&P is a highly profitable company who has started to signaled that it will be requesting a rate hike at some point. It is time the BL&P starts to tell the public a little more about what their plans are for making power distribution robust in Barbados.

  45. The scout Avatar
    The scout

    This might shock some of you but I think BL&P are doing a fine job. In most partsof the world I go, at some point in time there are blackouts. Babadosis a small country and blackouts sometime occur over areas 10 times our size and thisis ti developed countries. We in Barbados grumble about everything, water gone for one hour, we complain, telephone system and electricity, same thing. The worse series of blackouts I lived through was while in Guyana, almost every established property, commercial or residential, has a generator which is in use every day. They refer to the power supply by the national grid as the standby generator. Fellow bajans, this is not Uthopia, things would happen, look on the positive and stop dwelling on the negative
    J
    Let me stick a deal with you on your BL&P bill. You pay mine I pay yours. The bill I just received is slightly lower than last month’s. My bill is $ 347.52.

  46. Tony Hall Avatar
    Tony Hall

    Re Engineer,
    Thanks for explaining in great detail. I remember the power outage in 2004. It lasted about 26 hours. After that predicament I made sure I bought myself a generator. I am at this moment looking through the catalogue of a company called Northern Tool and Equipment with the intention of purchasing a 17 KW unit for permanent use. I have seen more outages within the last 4 years than in all the years I have been living in New York, hence the decision I am making. Maybe Bajans should consider obtaining portable generators. That would be a good investment. I am in the process in purchasing one for my parents’ home in Barbados so that when these outages occur basic things like the freezer and refrigerator will be kept going, of course along with lighting.

  47. John Avatar
    John

    Chris Halsall // August 19, 2008 at 10:53 pm

    @John: “I think one of the main reasons that the generating sites are so close to sea level is to easily access large volumes of fresh/brackish water from the fresh water lens for cooling.”

    Do you think (aka “Imagine”), or do you know?
    ++++++++++++++++++++++

    I do not know as I have never worked inside any of the generating plants, .. but I have been on a tour of the Spring Garden Plant but not the one at the Garrison.

    I seem to remember the conversion to Low Speed Diesels had recently been made but I could be wrong.

    I remember the tour more for the point made about the size of the generating capacity of the island.

    I believe it was the QE2 which was in port at the time and had been converted to a diesel electric propulsion system. I remember also touring the engine room of the QE2 as well at the time.

    The point was made at the time that the diesel generators on the QE2 produced as much electricity as the BL&P!! … I believe it was of the order of 90 megawatts.

    That was probaly in the late 80’s or early 90’s. I think the point made about Steam generation above also adds to the reasoning for the location of the plants by the coast.

    I know from my historical research that the first steam factories in Barbados were not in the rich agricultural areas in the higher elevations of the island but were built where there was easy access to fresh water.

    The Scotland District had ones at Newcastle and Baxters in 1869 whereas St. Thomas had none.

    Sea water is corrosive so fresh water is the preferred cooling source.

  48. John Avatar
    John

    Tony Hall

    I heard stories about the aftermath of Ivan in Grenada which might make you seriously consider how you use your generator after an emergency.

    The houses where generators were employed acted as beacons to looters who wanted food to eat or sell.

    It was not pretty.

    There is a down side to having generating capacity after an emergency.

  49. J Avatar
    J

    Dear Scout:

    I have a better deal for you (-: I will come to your house and advise you (free, no fee) how to get your eklectricity bill down to the $100 per month range. And how to keep it there permanently. My system does not involve any dishonesty, nor does it require any technical skills at all.

    BUT you must be prepared to be CHEAP.

  50. J Avatar
    J

    $250.00 per month saved on your electricity bill x 50 the 5o years os so that you as head of household wil be paying electricity bills x by whatever is the prevailing interest rate. I bet that you can save betwee $150,000 and $200,000.

    Or invest that $250 per month in BL&P shares and tell me the result.

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