Left in the dark

It came like a thief in the dark, but its effect was felt by everyone in Trinidad, from student to pensioner to businessman.

We refer to the unexpected electrical outage which took place shortly after midday on Wednesday and which gripped the nation for many hours thereafter.

The outage not only cut power to businesses, schools and households but also affected most of the Water and Sewerage Authority's (WASA) installations leading to no water or a reduced supply to large parts of the country.

Newsday was told that there was full electricity in Tobago and for this we are glad.

But the complete loss of power to all of Trinidad for hours on end must be explained in full. We expect nothing less.

We commend Public Utilities Minister Marvin Gonzales for apologising to the nation during an interview he had in a television station's 7 pm newscast. However, quite simply put, an apology isn't enough.

The power outage upended the lives of ordinary citizens from the businessman who had to close early, as well as many schools which also closed early on account of there being no electricity.

The outage was so complete that for most of the afternoon many people were unable to make calls or receive them via their mobile devices as the two main telecoms providers – bmobile and Digicel – were disrupted.

The inability to get clear answers from the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (TTEC) for hours on end led to rumours spreading from lip to ear since the usual social media mode was temporarily down on account of no electricity.

Talk of sabotage at TTEC was rife. Whispers of the police service being on full alert were also heard as the 'gram went into overdrive with the outage being linked to some real or imagined threat to national security.

There were large crowds at City Gate in Port of Spain and at most taxi stands in the nation's capital as people sought to either get home or to go and meet children let off from school earlier than usual. There were reports of similar long lines at taxi stands in other parts of Trinidad.

Apart from Minister Gonzales's interview on the newscast, all that was stated officially from TTEC on Wednesday was a press release issued at 3.24 pm, which confirmed the outage (which all of Trinidad already knew hours before) and that the cause of this "unfortunate incident" was unknown at the time of the press release.

The release also said that TTEC was mindful of its mandate and obligations to the population and that its commitment to provide a safe and reliable electricity supply remains paramount.

If this be the truth, and we don't doubt TTEC's sincerity, then nothing short of a full-scale and in-depth investigation would suffice in order to get to the bottom of the reasons behind the outage.

But not only that, TTEC and/or the line minister must level with the country and give cold, hard facts as to the reason for the outage, why it took so many hours for the situation to be remedied and what steps are being taken to ensure such an incident does not occur in the future.

TTEC must truly prove that it really has the power to make it work.