Le Hunte 'sorry' for Tobago blackout

PUBLIC Utilities Minister Robert Le Hunte apologised on Sunday to the people of Tobago for the island-wide blackout on September 27, five days after Tropical Storm Karen struck the island.

Addressing the PNM Tobago Council's fourth annual convention at Bishop's High School in Mt Marie, Scarborough, Le Hunte who is also the PNM's vice-chairman said he still awaiting a report, on the incident.

"We apologise for the blackout that we had a few days ago," he told supporters. "After the storm (Karen) we had 150 complaints and within two days all of the complaints were resolved. But, yes, I apologise for the blackout and I have immediately I have set up an enquiry into the system."

He added: "I have representation from the Tobago House of Assembly on that team and I am supposed to get a report to find out what happened at that plant, why Tobago shut down. Because that is not supposed to happen."

T&TEC said in a statement 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. Power was restored several hours later.

The Tobago Hotel and Tourism Association has since called for an investigation into the operations at the power station said he is awaiting a report on the incident.