Minister Konris Maynard oversees SKELEC operations to ensure swift power restoration in St Kitts

St Kitts and Nevis: As there was an islandwide outage in St Kitts yesterday (December 10, 2024) for almost five hours due to a report of smelling a burning scent, Minister of Energy and Utilities Konris Maynard assured everyone that it was necessary for everyone’s safety.  

Reportedly, there was a control shutdown of the Needsmust Power Plant which resulted in an island wide outage to conduct an investigation of a fault.  

It was said that the operators at St. Kitts Electricity Co. Ltd (SKELEC) reported smelling a burning scent coming from the main Feeder Room which experienced a fire back in 2020 and immediately activated the emergency shut down protocol to prevent a potential fire and damage to the Generation, Transmission and Distribution infrastructure. 

Taking swift action, the technicians were able to solve the issue and restore the power within just a few hours.  

Even as the technicians were working to solve the issue, Minister Maynard went live through his official Facebook account to assure the citizens that the work is ongoing and soon they will be having the power supply back.  

In a one hour long video, the Minister was consistently showcasing what was happening and how the issue is being solved and he was also taking up queries of locals through live comments.  

He also cleared one of the queries of a local who asked about duty free concessions for the acquisition of solar panels to which Konris Maynard replied, “Those already exist. So you can get, duty free. There's no duty on any solar, systems that you bring in. Those have been in existence for many years, in fact, since the previous Labor Administration.” 

Another person asked about the generators to which the minister replied that nothing is wrong with any of the generators at this time.  

Meanwhile, another user begged for the electricity to be back saying that his phone’s battery is just 10 percent to which the Minister in a funny and sympathising way said, “Oh, I feel it.” 

He also thanked the citizens for their cooperation in this crucial time and asked everyone to stay calm for just sometime. 

Notably, after a thorough investigation, the teams at SKELEC were able to locate the cause of the fault using new technologies recently procured as part of their safety and preventative program. 

Following the power was restored, Minister Konris Maynard again took to Facebook to update the citizens and noted that power has been restored to all feeders.