For more than a week the country has been experiencing frequent electricity outages that also made it impossible to publish a newspaper last Friday. Today’s edition is therefore a combined one with content of both days.
The end is not yet in sight, as utilities provider GEBE continues to grapple with lack of production especially after the recent fire at its plant in Cay Bay damaged two auxiliary units, while another sprang an unforeseen fuel leak Thursday. They even had to replace big transformer at the parking lot near Captain’s Ribs Shack on Sunday.
Plans to bring generators from Curaçao and Aruba proved futile because these would not have sufficient capacity. Others will thus need to be procured from elsewhere, shipped to the island, installed, safely connected to the grid and put into operation.
Although that understandably can’t happen overnight, time is of the essence with both residents and businesses hurting. Keep in mind that very few payments are made in cash nowadays, so not being able to process bank or credit cards invariably leads to missed sales.
Visitors will tend to stay in their resorts that often have emergency backup more, which is bad for the rest of the tourism economy. Some might not come at all and – for example – Canada advised its travellers (see related story) to expect prolonged power outages.
Many households, grocery stores and restaurants suffered food spoilage due to no refrigeration too. In some cases electronic devices and ITC networks were negatively affected.
Until there is again enough energy to meet demand, load-shedding will remain the order of the day. However, once this is all over GEBE may want to consider giving customers at least a small break on their monthly bill for all the inconvenience and material losses.
With the government-owned company’s own financial situation still precarious since the ransomware attack and its impact on its billing system two years ago, such a discount doesn’t have to be much, but any gesture will no doubt be appreciated.
As they say, it’s the thought that counts
