Herculean task still awaits VINLEC after Beryl

The St Vincent Electricity Services Limited (VINLEC) has a herculean task ahead of them for the restoration of power across the Southern Grenadines following the passage of Hurricane Beryl.

The massive Category 4 weather system has forced electrical companies in Barbados, Grenada, Jamaica and also St Vincent and the Grenadines into overdrive as the strength of its winds broke utility poles, downed lines and, on Union Island, extensively damage the power station.

VINLEC Chief Executive Officer, Dr Vaughn Lewis explained to SEARCHLIGHT that while all three of the Southern Grenadine islands lashed by Hurricane Beryl require significant work, Union Island is by far the most difficult case.

“The easy ones are Canouan and Mayreau. We have a team going down to Canouan [today] and we are beefing up those teams, and we may add in additional persons next week. We are hoping that we will have some form of power in the central areas in Canouan, as long as we don’t have any unknown equipment damage, by the end of this week.”

For island-wide restoration in Canouan and Mayreau Dr Lewis said, “… we are hoping we have Canouan up in two months, completely, and Mayreau as well”.

For Union Island where more work will have to be done, the estimated time is longer. Dr Lewis said while full restoration may not be likely before year-end, they are working to restore central areas in the coming months.

“I do not think it will go past eight months to a year to have power restored completely, but I would hope that we would have most of the restoration done, especially to the main areas, during the course of this year,” he explained.

“Union Island is the only one where the storm ripped through the power station, and it will take some time to get the power station back up. But we are not going to wait until we get the power station back up to start rebuilding lines. Even if it means some sort of temporary power to get power to the central areas , that will happen. “

The damage assessment on Union Island is still underway, and Dr Lewis said the VINLEC teams will be placing their focus on the recovery of materials. He highlighted that transformers are the high priority items, and disclosed that delays in sourcing them- up to 18 months in some cases- could extend the work.

“The only issue that can hold us back is if we don’t have enough material. We are looking at all different sources around the world to see if we could shorten that time. If we have good transformers in Union Island, it will help the situation. If all the transformers

in Union Island are gone, we don’t have enough transformers to feed the whole of Union Island.”

He added that the damage assessment figures are dependent on what materials can be recovered.

A major part of completing the restoration work is also housing technicians who will be going into the island to work. Requests have been made for additional technicians from the Caribbean Electric Utility Services Corporation (CARILEC) to bolster the local teams.

“We have requested external assistance for the restoration of the Southern Grenadines…to CARILEC for Canouan and, hopefully, we can work with regional teams, mainland teams and our local contractor…and also Union Island when we get going. We have to be able to properly accommodate, feed, and do laundry for the foreign teams. So part of our drive right now is making sure we can do that.”

Even when electricity becomes available, some buildings, those which suffered structural damage or broken meters, VINLEC have advised will need to be inspected before electricity can be restored.

Dr Lewis said for the mainland, the restoration work is near completion, with remaining customers who are able to receive electricity to be connected by this week.

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