The St. Vincent Electricity Services (VINLEC) is ahead of their power restoration schedule following the devastating passage of Hurricane Beryl.
This was disclosed by VINLEC’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr. Vaughn Lewis, during a call to WE FM’s Issue At Hand program.
Dr. Lewis earlier had given an estimate that the company was expected to have all customers back online within two weeks. On Sunday he said that the following the work put in by the Vinlec’s workers, their restoration efforts are ahead of schedule in terms of load.
“We are ahead of the schedule in terms of load. The last 15 to 10% is usually a little bit more tedious, but we are still targeting both in Bequia and on mainland to have all our customers restored by the end of this week. Some of them, especially persons who have had damaged buildings, we have to go through a process where we visit along with the electrical inspectorate so that when the electrical inspectorate declares that the place is safe to reconnect, that we reconnect them.
But this last 10 to 15% takes a longer time than the first chunk of customers who are online.” Dr. Lewis said.
Dr. Lewis said that while Vinlec’s transmission and distribution infrastructure were significantly damaged on the island’s of Mayreau and Canouan, their power stations were spared the worst, which will provide a base for work to commence there. He however noted that timeframe for the commencement of work on those islands by Vinlec could not be provided at the time.
