Major power outages throughout Tobago in the last two weeks has resulted in irate hotel guests seeking refunds of their money and business owners counting their losses. President of the Tobago Hotel and Tourism Association Carol Ann Birchwood-James said yesterday that the electricity “crisis” went on for 12 days. She said during this time, restaurants were forced to close their doors and hotels had to return money to guests. “The loss of electricity was not the problem, we understood the reason for it...the problem was that no one was told of the schedule of the outages,” she said.

“If we were told, then we would know how to arrange business and what to tell out guests.” She said businesses were now seeking compensation from the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (T&TEC) for lost business, as well as damaged appliances. “We wrote T&TEC and they have answered us by telephone but we await a written response,” she said. She pointed out that the island was not facing as much electricity loss as before. But several businesses contacted yesterday said electricity had been going everyday.
“Last week current went from 10 am to 12 noon everyday, then again in the evening from 7.30 pm to 9.30 pm,” said a worker at Carnbee Auto and General Supplies.

He added that on Wednesday, electricity went about 15 times in a five-minute period. Keon Muir, service agent supervisor at Sheppy’s Auto Rental, Crown Point, said the company’s Internet service had been affected by the electricity loss. He said foreigners who wished to rent cars from the company would do so via e-mail, but because the electricity went so often, mails could not be read on time. “By the time the current came back and we read the e-mail and try to respond, we would be told that they (foreigners) had found another car rental,” he said.

He said electricity went at 10.30 am yesterday, returned at 11 am but was gone again a few minutes later. The manager at Royal Palm Casino, Mt Irvine, said each time electricity went, the company lost thousands of dollars as the slot machines could not work without power. “We are also very fearful that the constant switching on and off will eventually damage the machines,” she added.

T&TEC responds

Communications manager of the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (T&TEC) Stephen Martel said no load- shedding has been done by the company since last Friday. He said because of the damage done to one of two submarine cables which supplied power to Tobago from the Toco sub-station to Milford Bay sub-station, only one cable was in operation.

“We have a power station at Scarborough running at full load and what we are doing as well is testing one of the machines at the Cove power station, which is assisting us with power in Tobago,” Martel said. He said there were no major power outages on the island between Wednesday and yesterday, but there were “little trips” which was normal with the testing of the machine.