DOMLEC Apologises For Interruptions in Electricity Supply
ROSEAU, Dominica - The Dominica Electricity Services (DOLMEC) is urging consumers to brace for further disruptions in their electricity supply as the commissioning for geothermal energy enters the final stage.
Geothermal plant in Roseau Valley (File Photo)There have been public concerns over frequent electricity outages and earlier this week, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said he does not minimise the inconvenience these outages have caused.
“But I ask for our people’s understanding as the teething difficulties of these recent weeks are the cost of doing something new. But when this work is complete, we will have lower electricity costs, greater reliability, and a Dominica that is no longer at the mercy of imported fuel.”
He said since generation began in March, some technical issues associated with testing and integrating new infrastructure have contributed to service interruptions.
“The good news is that these issues are being identified, addressed and resolved as part of the commissioning process,” Skerrit added.
DOMLEC general manager, Dwayne Cenac, acknowledged “some major outages recently” adding “we’re still in that commissioning phase.
“We’re basically at the final stages of it. We’re into the reliability testing. That reliability testing, the geothermal plant essentially has to run based on contractual obligations. It has to run continuously for seven days before we can say yes, we’re ready to get into commercial operation.”
But Cenac said “unfortunately, just recently, yesterday, we had an interruption and that test has to be restarted.
“So that clock of seven days has restarted. Over a lot of the issues, you know, something always comes up. It’s still the commissioning phase. We’re working together with the geothermal power company to, you know, get these bugs out and, you know, hopefully see much stabler power.
“Of course, …it doesn’t mean that we cannot suffer outages, you know going forward, but at least we’re seeing, you know, increased production from geothermal and that increase in production means that we’re displacing more and more imported diesel, imported fuel.
“So the more we can increase the use of geothermal together with our hydro brings us closer and closer to energy independence and much stabler prices for electricity,” Cenac added.
On Thursday ,DOMLEC announced profits of EC$1.99 million (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) for the last financial yea
Dominica’s pioneering 10-megawatt (MW) geothermal power plant in the Roseau Valley costs an estimated US$68.3 million with the financing package being collaboratively raised through major regional and global partnerships.
These include US$34.8 million from the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and US$15 million from the Caribbean Development Fund (CDF). Additional funding has been contributed by the UK government, the government of New Zealand, and SIDS DOCK.
