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PHILIPSBURG - A short in one of two feeder cables leading to the Zagersgut Substation triggered a complete blackout on the Dutch side of the island late Sunday afternoon.

The emergency protection systems at the Cay Bay Power Plant were triggered completely shutting down the power plant for a number of hours Sunday evening.

A GEBE team of technicians have been busy Sunday evening working to isolate the short in the feeder cable, however without success up to press time.

Unfortunately, this left a number of districts without power such as Dutch Quarter, Belvedere, Oyster Pond, Defiance, Middle Region and Guana Bay, but GEBE engineers were able to bring those areas back online by approximately 10.30pm after re-routing the electrical production supply.

The demand in those aforementioned areas on Sunday night is low and technicians will continue to look for the fault and implement immediate repairs on Monday morning.

The re-routing of Sunday evening is only a temporary measure. Once the short has been located load shedding of the aforementioned areas will be necessary in order to repair the problem.

Electricity supply to other residential districts were back online after power plant technicians were able to re-route power to the last Zagersgut Substation cable, however the cable can only carry a certain load. Numerous attempts were made to resupply the various districts, but the fault kept creating a destabilizing situation.

Cay Bay Power Plant engineers were taken aback by the island-wide (Dutch side) outage and said it was rather unusual. All power generating equipment are functional and operational including the two new generators that were inaugurated last Friday.

Shorts in the power generation system are not uncommon and can happen anytime without warning.

GEBE continues to make investments in the electrical supply system in order to provide a reliable system. The current Bush Road civil works is related to GEBE's ring system that will connect to the Pond Island Substation once completed.

The ring system will allow GEBE to still be able to provide electricity to Philipsburg and surrounding environs should a fault develop in the distribution network. GEBE engineers would be able to re-route the electricity more quickly thereby limiting the disruption time in service.

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Fed-up   |72.252.9.xxx |2010-03-15 01:03:19 I telling you. What an afternoon. I came home hungry and was microwaving some dinner, downloading some music from iTunes and my wife was out in the back doing some washing when the power went out. Machine stop and thing and I saw her looking all miserable. So I went and helped her hang out the balance of the clothes and fold the dry ones. Then we went for a drive and were checking out the darkness. Was nice to see her enjoying my company, thanks to GEBE. I admit, I became too dependent on technology. Long time ago I was boiling water on stones in the back yard and washing clothes on my hand in a bath pan and had to get my music from Scorpio's on Front Street. But it was fun time. Reply 1   0

citizen   |200.7.54.xxx |2010-03-15 02:13:45 Here we go again. Mayor blackout on Sunday. The whole dutch side was without electricity for many hours. Now GEBE has gone to rat to something else. Poor we......... Reply 2   0

mechanicman   |190.102.2.xxx |2010-03-15 02:48:08 i have lived here since 1972 and these last two years has been the worst ever that i can ever remember. where is this progress? I thought it was supposed to get better... Reply 2   0

Gebe   |190.102.1.xxx |2010-03-15 03:15:57 It went back out at 11 pm and returned 5 am. It disrupted my beauty sleep..... Reply 1   0

Ricky   |201.220.15.xxx |2010-03-15 03:38:10 sint maarten to me is getting to be worst than santo domingo everytime we have a power outage all the money they invest in GBEBE and the same thing for year when will it change Reply 1   0

Sad customer   |190.102.3.xxx |2010-03-15 04:06:57 It is a real shame that such a lovely Island has such a TERRIBLE power company, it brings us down to a 3rd world level, very sad, outrageous high electricity costs and terrible service with power supply that can never be counted on ? We should all divide our bills by 30 days and every day that the power goes off take that amount OFF the bill, maybe that will give them the message that we are all tired of this poor power company! Come on GEBE it's 2010 get serious and the oil spills with blatant disregard for the environment need to be accounted for as well. Reply 2   0

Progressive Citizens for a bet   |200.7.62.xxx |2010-03-15 04:33:31 This is another one of those moments when you go Hummm. GEBE Lacks backup plans. GEBE Lacks good management techiques. GEBE Lacks accountability. This includes taking accountability for mistakes and giving credit where credit is due, i.e. Pay the people who lose valuables because of their mistakes. GEBE Lacks the ability to Create a systems, tools and training that will help managers to develop better relationships in solving problems. This is the foundation for driving accountability in organizations. GEBE is in the consumer service business. I believe that GEBE lacks the desire to improve. If they had comp. then they would do a better job in rendering service. We should not have blackouts in good weather. I think it's time to invest in Citizens individual generators large enough to share with your neighbors to prepare for an active Hurricane season. Then we should have GEBE blackouts where the citizens turn on their generators for 2 days and not use GEBE power for those days. I think when they lose money for two days they will improve their service to keep people from doing it to them over and over again.... Reply 2   0

xx   |190.102.8.xxx |2010-03-15 06:32:48 What all u fools in sxm voted for a monkey clan so what do u expect black people again that dont care or they dont know how to fix a problem when all the men or fools working on this plant look at te last friday paper and you,ll see all the monkeys and idiots Reply 0   0

Anonymous   |201.220.15.xxx |2010-03-15 06:58:29 Generating Every thing But Electricity Reply 0   0

THE after party   |72.252.11.xxx |2010-03-15 08:59:46 per 12:00 noon oysterpond, belvedere dawn beach and the likes are in darkness again. What is the excuse now. YOu wasted the tax payers money on an early party for elites and the poor remain in darkness. What a shame. Reply 0   0

LadyAwayforNow   |94.195.191.xxx |2010-03-15 09:15:52 THIS IS TO EVERYONE who is hell bent on getting the poor managing director out of position. Heaven knows you all need to get a life and live it! Obviously good intentions and hard work is being sabotaged from within....c'mon people you gotta ask yourself why sooo many blackouts and ill news about GEBE correspond miraculously with his appointment. Remember all he does is manage the people who work the plants and offices.....why is he to blame for mechanical issues? Use common sense....put 2 and 2 together. I'm sure he probably made a few erroneous decisions while in position as we all do at our jobs..The question is, to what extent will ppl go to to get at someone they hate....they don't even care that we all suffering along with him......Grow up and if possible ...buy an ounce or two of maturity!! For some that may be too much to ask! Reply 0   0

sickofit   |190.102.9.xxx |2010-03-15 10:55:09 No picture of Mr. Brooks in the newspaper now when shit hits the fan? Only when credits are to be collected we see him and his team in the paper or donations to be given. Lets face it all we should accept the outages as "only god knows" and (ab)using a company creditcard as accepted by the judge. Reply 0   0

Little santo domingo   |200.7.55.xxx |2010-03-15 13:04:44 St. Maarten turning into a little Santo Domingo where the power goes out all the time. That ok, at least all the hardware places making money and gas stations cuz ppl need generators Reply 0   0

time out   |72.252.9.xxx |2010-03-15 13:25:01 It's a sd day for the people of SxM. Now it is time ti send home the GEBE board as well as M.D. BROOKS. How much longer do we have to deal with this. my god people wake up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we are not living in the 80's we are now living in the 20th centry Reply 0   0

Tizzle   |200.7.59.xxx |2010-03-15 14:35:46 After there grand inauguration we in Cole bay were plunged in darkness from 2:00 AM Sunday morning until 8:00PM Sunday night. Eighteen dam ours without any explanation. We are worst than a third world country and are not prepared for country St. Maarten. Reply 0   0

mechanicman   |190.102.2.xxx |2010-03-15 15:25:56 Well here we go again. day 2 and power off...gebe and mr brooks go stick a nail in a live outlet....but wait for power to return.. Reply 0   0

Observer   |96.232.18.xxx |2010-03-15 16:17:55 These power outages are getting out of control and creating a lot of problems for (1) damaging your applainces and (2) food spoilage, is GEBE going to replace our damage appliances and food that was bought over the weekend, food is to expensive to be wasted like this. Come on now let's get this thing working what ever is being upgraded and pronto before 10/10/10 gets here. Reply 0   0

Gaga   |200.7.60.xxx |2010-03-15 16:22:34 It also went out from 1:15 to 1:45 PM Sunday and that seemed to have gone unnoticed. This evening (Monday) it was out again for an hour or more.... Ridiculous... Reply 0   0

Again   |200.7.50.xxx |2010-03-15 16:45:37 Lights out tonight again! Reply 0   0

sick and tired   |72.252.9.xxx |2010-03-15 16:54:28 what a mess the only day you spend home to do what ever little work you have to do. you just cant do nothing. it seems as though g.e.b.e is getting worse every day. your bills are getting higher your things in your house is getting messed up and there is nothing we can do about it. they have to come better than this Reply 0   0

Practice what u preach   |190.124.218.xxx |2010-03-15 16:57:12 BLAH BLAH current BLAH BLAH BLAH Reply 0   0

This is what relly happen!   |190.124.218.xxx |2010-03-15 17:06:18 I am herby noftifying the island of SXm on my behalf n my staff that we had a bit more than average champagne to drink during our inagural ceremony(bka Happy Hour)on friday. Therefore we were not successful with the correct installing of wires n pipes in the drainage that was expectedd to be connected to the wire that wasn't fedexed to the island on time due to the bomb scare on PJIAE when our special aircraft was turned back n mad a wrong landing in Russia. So we had to put our Lovely Sint Maarten in darkness and once more rwached our goal in punishing u all for not paying ur bills on time.. Reply 0   0

no summer yet   |200.7.52.xxx |2010-03-15 17:13:23 Mr B dont give Bull story, if you cant run y cant u give some 1 to run. mr B Be on Back Bumper. what will B in summer Mr B. y cant ppl protest Reply 0   0

! FRUSTRATED!   |72.252.9.xxx |2010-03-15 19:42:49 From Sunday morning 3a.m. to Sunday evening after 8 p.m. 17 HOURS WITHOUT ELECTRICITY! ARE YOU SHITTING KIDDING ME? GET SERIOUS! Reply 0   0

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