CUC power outages over the next four days
(CNS): Grand Cayman’s power supply company has said that customers in various parts of the island may experience temporary outages over the next four days as a result of a temporary lack of generation capacity due to equipment failure. CUC said that engineers are currently on site and working to restore the engines to full working condition. In the event that these outages do occur, CUC will limit them to one hour per outage, where possible, the power company said, promising to keep customers regularly updated via the media and on its website. CUC offered apologies for the inconvenience these outages may cause.
Category: Local News
What might be a useful discussion (perhaps in the forums for those who use them) is for the person claiming 'diesel is third world power' to debate what other power should be used, particularly discussing (a) costs, (b) safety, (c) reliability and (c) availability at this present time. And if they really want to raise the level of discourse they could get in to total environmental impact of various power generation systems.
muppett…trying to defend the idea that importing and burning diesel is the way forward……zzzzzzzzzzzz
Instead of this brief warning about power outages, why didn't CUC send out a notice outlining the times when power usage spikes and ask customers to cut back on energy usage during those times? If these rolling blackouts are expected because of lack of generating capacity it would stand to reason that lowering our use of electricity during the peak times would reduce the probability that power would have to be cut at all.
I would imagine that mid-day is peak load time and asking businesses and homeowners to run their air conditioning units at a slightly higher temperature and consider not using high-energy appliances during that time would be very helpful. It might even end up teaching us that we're still comfortable when the air conditioning is two degrees higher, that it's not terribly inconvenient to turn off those lights we're not using, that we can do with a little bit less power, that we can save a little bit more money and burn a little bit less diesel. Win-win-win… it's only CUC profits that stand to lose.
What we are seeing is the inevitable result of squeezing our main utility.
What happens in every case is first, cut backs in customer service,
second, cut backs in maintenance, and finally, degeneration of utility service
as the company continues to live off its invested capital
I have warned about this many times over the years, but no one seems to
take any heed.
Now we are beginning to see the results.
CUC is not what it usedto be, and we can expect more decline.
Is this what the Caymanian people really want? Rolling blackouts?
Are we proving once again that people are never satisfied and always
attempt to grab the "free" lunch they imaging is lying somewhere?
We have even hired an ERA, which we cannot afford, to look for it.
And the chances are great that Cayman will be in a much worse
position than if they simply accepted and enjoyed what it already had.
There is no "free" lunch, but those that sic the government on to trying
to find it, wind up with more government, and a degenerating product.
Obviously, a failing electrical utility is one more black mark on the
Cayman economy
Maybe when we get another Ivan! some people will appreciate the power company and stop complaining. the best of systems need maintenance and even the superpowers of the world have power failures . give thanks for the good and stop seeing the bad first.
I see nothing good about having to take out a second mortgage to pay my CUC bill! So its a kick in the teeth when its not working properly and we are not reimbursed for the loss of power!
An act of God is one thing. Taking so much of your capacity offline for routine maintenance (as the official explanation goes) that when you have another piece off equipment fail you can no longer support peak demand is quite another. If you read the Compass article you will see that these guys supposedly have capacity of 151MW and all time record demand was only 102Mw.
The explanation is either wrong, or there was some pretty bad management/risk taking involved in taking so much off line at once, or the entire system is critically dependent on a small number of generating units (which in turn reflects poor management in planning system redundancy). Not a great performance, frankly, but that's what happens when you have a monopoly that has guaranteed profit margins and is never held to account by the system regulator. What is rather depressing is that notwithstanding their guaranteed margins these guys seem incapable of investing in the new plant and system redundancy that would eliminate these errors.
If we had net metering that encouraged home owners and businesses to use solar and wind generation to reduce demand and supplement the electricity that CUC generates then this would probably be less of an issue.
well at least they didn't blame the frog this time.
Those Trolls get everywhere:)
We have one of the best and most reliable power supplies in the region.
Odd as it may seem that is actually true.
and most expensive…
That is not true. You clearly have not done any proper comparison. CUC is about middle of the pack.
Well i hope they let us know in advance if and when they are cutting power so at least we can prepare for it. Also trust them to choose on of the hottest months of the year to do this.
I don't think they "chose" to do this…………………..
what do you expect when you rely on third world methods of generating electricity?????
Total amateurs. 3rd world system.
Do you really believe your comment is helpful? I fear we are raising a society of people who are happy to sit back and criticize, but very slow to step forward and make a difference. Insulting others accomplishes nothing, but rather says volumes about the commenter.
Have you been to the third world? Do you know how many people 400 miles to the east in Haiti have power?
Power in Cayman is on 99.9% of the time…….and you haveto 'suffer' the inconvenience of an hour without power?
YOU need to become educated into how privileged YOU are. If you are serious about your comment (or just trying to bring a reaction), YOU are a very WEAK minded and naiive person.
Why dont you take the one hour without power and put down your remote control and go out in the community and help someone?
What is SAD is that there are probably a lot of people in Cayman you might concur with your comment. Go to Wikipedia and bring up Haiti or Nicaragua, and see how fortunate you are relative to your neighbors a few hundred miles away. Embarrassing.
Fortunately my weak mind is able to grasp the basics of spelling, punctuation and grammar; matters that appear to elude you.
The non sequiturs that riddle your comment make it difficult to respond in a reasoned way without sacrificing brevity.
Perhaps you should consider whether in a first world country “equipment failure” would lead to four days of power outages? CUC are certainly charging far more than first world prices, maybe they should consider providing first world service. Built in redundancy may be a good place to start.
"Total amatuers. 3rd world system". Nice insightful comment. And perhaps learn the meaning of "non sequitur" and apply that to your arrogant comment. We have power 99.9% of the time. Sorry for the inconvenient 0.1% that you have to go without. And encourage you to know what the 3rd world is. Arrogant, selfish and pompous comment. Good day.
*yawns*
"burps"
The news say there may be outages. I applaud the Company for telling us what to expect. We are dealing with electricity here and based on my limited understanding, you have to practice safety at all times. So if there is a failure the company has to ensure that it is dealt with properly and protect the staff. This must take time. I have had my power all day yesterday and all night so I am assuming that they are resolving the problems and will only take off the power if it is absolutely necessary.
Some of us would do well to travel out of Cayman for a while and check the electricity service you get in other islands. On today and off tomorrow without warning sometimes. It seems to me that we have a great service here. Trust me I have travelled and experienced many outages for much longer than an hour at a time.
Let's appreciate what we have and stop being cantankerous and negative just because we can!
Did you study specifically to be so pompous or did it come naturally?
Dear boy, that was not pomposity – it was condescension. Completely different concept. If I'd said it in Latin that would have been pompous.
O seri studiorum.
Related, not completely different and you have got both.
14:15, do you work in an office by any chance? Try working in one when the power cuts off.
Dude. Its perhaps one hour. Relax. Consider yourself fortunate to work in an office, probably earning more than $103 per month, the average monthly income for someone living in Haiti. Stop complaining and grow up and put things in perspective.
you miss the point…… relying on burning deisel to generate 100% of your energy is third world….. and is a disgrace to any modern nation…….