Hoteliers wants probe of Tobago blackout

Crown Point, Tobago.

Photo: Marshelle Haseley
Crown Point, Tobago. Photo: Marshelle Haseley

The Tobago Hotel and Tourism Association (THTA) has called for an investigation into the operations of the Cove Power Station, Lowlands, after generators at the station reportedly tripped off on Friday, causing an island-wide blackout.

"We really thought Cove was supposed to have solved all of our problems with electricity supply but in the past six months we have had numerous outages and were are finding it extremely difficult for hotels to deal with guests that are complaining about these situations," he told reporters yesterday during a news conference at the association's head office in Carnbee.

"So, I think there should be a report into what happened at Cove. We need to understand exactly where we stand with Cove to get to the bottom of these outages because it does appear to be happening."

Although power has been restored fully to the island, engineers are working feverishly to determine the cause of the outage.

In a statement on Friday, TTEC reported that an alarm went off at the Cove Power Station at about 5.20 pm after which the generators tripped off, causing the island-wide outage.

"Engineers immediately commenced work to restart the generators and at approximately 7 pm the first customers, in Friendship, Crown Point, Bon Accord and environs, were brought back on. At 8.30 pm, about 50 per cent of customers were on.

"The commission has launched an enquiry into the cause of the triggered alarm and the failure of the generators," it said.

The commission said the incident was not related to last weekend's passage of tropical storm Karen when several areas of Tobago lost power.

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"Hoteliers wants probe of Tobago blackout"

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