Tripped power-plant generators lead to blackouts in Trinidad

Tripped generators at two of the country's three independent electricity-producing plants on the morning of November 15 led to brief outages across Trinidad.

A power generator is described as "tripped" if it has automatically shut down for any reason.

Thousands experienced outages shortly before 7 am on November 15 in areas such as Cunupia, Penal, Barrackpore, Freeport, Preysal, Rousillac, Couva, St Augustine, Bon Air and Arouca.

In total, 100,000 customers or 20 per cent of those supplied by the TT Electricity Commission (T&TEC) were affected according to the authority and Public Utilities Minister Marvin Gonzales.

In the first instance, T&TEC issued an apology to citizens in a statement around 10 am as it assured all customers were back on the grid by 7.41 am.

It said the tripped generators at its Independent Power Producers (IPPS) engaged its automatic "Under Frequency Scheme" to reduce localised impact by bumping off customers around the country through "load shedding."

"As a result of the reduced generation, the system automatically shed customers in Trinidad to match the capacity that was available. The IPPs were immediately instructed to restart the generators and bring on additional machines where necessary," it said.

Although the commission's statement did not divulge the extent of the "issues" at IPPs and which plants were involved, Gonzales dug deeper during a sitting of the House of Representatives on November 15.

"Between 6.55 am and 7.05 am Trinidad Generation Unlimited (TGU) experienced trips on two of its gas turbines resulting in a loss of generation of approximately 240 megawatts of power. During the same period, Contour Global Trinity Power experienced a trip on one of its 75-megawatt gas turbines. These generator trips resulted in the initiation of an under frequency load-shedding event, whereby approximately 100,000 customers across Trinidad lost supply for 35 minutes on average."

T&TEC said the IPPs were expected to submit an incident report in the shortest possible timeframe.

Pressed further by Princes Town MP Barry Padarath in Parliament for a definitive deadline, Gonzales said: "We expect to have that report in the shortest time possible."

Meanwhile, T&TEC workers continued "peaceful picket action outside of working hours" on November 15 to call attention to several issues facing employees. The recurring action kicked off on October 24 when workers engaged in simultaneous action across several of the commission's branches.

While there have been threats of supply disruption if their concerns are not addressed, Oil Field Workers Trade Union Chief Education and Research Officer and Executive Treasure Ozzi Warwick said employees had no hand to play in Friday morning's blackouts.

"You would realise supply was immediately brought back on, thanks, of course, to the hardworking workers at T&TEC."