On Sunday November 6th around 10:30PM the Dutch side of St. Maarten experienced a blackout, when the GEBE power plant was suddenly shut down by the over current protective system of the power plant.
While in operation power plant, a short circuit suddenly occurred in the main High Voltage Busbar system. This resulted in an excessive over current. The protective devices of the power plant upon sensing the excessive overcurrent reacted and shut down all the production units, in order to protect the production units from damage, which consequently resulted in a blackout.
After inspection of the situation, the personnel of the power plant noticed that one of the High Voltage switch gear of the main high voltage buss bar system had suffered damages due to the short circuit.
Further analysis revealed that critical components of the high voltage Switch Gear was damaged and had to be replaced. This reconditioning and replacement is a time consuming process, reason why the outage took quite some time.
Upon completion of repair work the startup procedure commenced and power was restored at 2:28AM to first district. The restoration process continued until power to the last district was restored at 3:52AM.
We regret this unfortunate occurrence and apologize for the inconvenience caused to all our consumers. However, we assure the public that GEBE is making effort to ensure a stable as possible power supply to the island.
On behalf of management of NV GEBE
Ing. Paul Marshall
Interim Manager / Director
CC: Supervisory Board of Directors of NV GEBE