CUC working on cause of island-wide blackout

| 17/07/2015 | 34 Comments
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CUC crews working on power lines

(CNS) UPDATED: The whole of Grand Cayman lost power Friday morning and CUC is still not able to confirm the cause of the blackout. Power was returned to parts of Seven Mile Beach, West Bay, South Sound, Smith Road, Crewe Road, Shamrock Road into Northward and Bodden Town after the more than five hour outage. The George Town hospital was also connected to the power supply but the rest of the capital, the eastern districts and other spots were still without electricity at 11:30am.

The island-wide blackout began well before six in the morning and much earlier for some in and around George Town, CS readers have said, a spokesperson for the local power provider issued a short release confirming Grand Cayman’s power cut at about 7:30am.

At 11:15 CUC issued a second release stating that the cause of the blackout was still under investigation, as crews worked to restore the power to the rest of the island. A spokesperson also confirmed that there had been no explosion at the firm’s power plant in the industrial area.

“Crews continue to work as quickly as possible to restore the power to all customers in a safe manner. The cause of the outage is currently under investigation. CUC sincerely apologizes for the inconvenience caused to customers affected by this outage,” the power provider stated.

Meanwhile, residents and businesses across the island were impacted by the long power cut and many shops, restaurants and other commercial entities were unable to open or operate Friday morning. Some of the larger businesses with backup generators were able to open for business but on limited power as they waited for CUC to get the grid fully back on-line.

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  1. GE says:

    Time for change in leadership. This has been going on for too long and very frequently. No rebate for loss of business to companies or refunds to homeowners. The executives still gets their big bonuses for providing crappy service!

  2. Diogenes says:

    12 hours after the outage, and they still do not know who/what caused it (or are too embarrassed to tell us). Who is investigating it – the RCIPS?

  3. Anonymous says:

    Thankyou cuc for forcing me to look into alternative sources of power. The one good thing that came out of today is i finally started to look into ways to reduce what i hand over for your extortionately priced service.

  4. Anonymous says:

    This is one of the “joys” of living on a third world island. If you don’t like it move to a first world country and see what you have got to complain about then.

    • Anonymous says:

      Well, I’d certainly have the wicked long commute to get here every morning to complain about…

  5. Rp says:

    Can’t take frustration on CUC guys! The main issue is that CIG is not allowing for competition. These guys are a monopoly and therefore have no incentive to improve service and equipment. In the end they will just stuff us with charges to recoup their losses.

    CIG, we need an alternative to CUC now! This is the third outage this year as far as I remember.

  6. JTB says:

    I could say that CUC is the world’s worst company, but that would be unfair to Lime

  7. Anonymous says:

    Thanks to CUC I have lost almost a full day of productivity and and my company thousands of dollars in revenue because of this power outage. This is ridiculous!!

  8. Anonymous says:

    Pathetic.

  9. Diogenes says:

    Released shortly my foot. Going on 11 and nothing on the cause or any indication of when it may come back on. Do they not know, or cannot be bothered to tell businesses and consumers?

  10. Anonymous says:

    I am angry!!! Why are we having this problem! My cuc bill be 1,000+ KYD every month! And we pay for bad service! Come on CUC! It’s TIME to invest in some good new equipment this is HORRIBLE!!!!

    Yes I am a caymanian!

  11. Anonymous says:

    Compensation for defrosted food will be reflected in your next CUC bill.

    • Anonymous says:

      Hopefully you were smart enough to not open your fridge with the power off. Even if you did open the door, your food will be fine for quite a bit longer. Fridges are very well sealed and insulated.

  12. Anonymous says:

    Actually, it began well before 5. I awoke at 4:50 a.m. and there was no power.

  13. Anonymous says:

    CUC you are a DISGRACE and your service is PATHETIC IN EVERY WAY!!!

  14. Anonymous says:

    Hey CUC how about investing in a large UPS for to provide power to us when your grid is down. You must be able to afford this after robbing us blind for all these years. Oh, sorry you want us to pay for that too. Forget I asked.

  15. Anonymous says:

    So CUC doesn’t just cripple businesses with thier prices. Perhaps every company on island should back charge CUC for expenses and loss of income from these power outages

  16. Anonymous says:

    Cayman’a inexorable progression to a third world state

  17. Anonymous says:

    Power went out at 12 38 came back on then again around 4am

  18. Anonymous says:

    Total amateurs.

  19. Anonymous says:

    My son woke up at 4:30 AM to use the restroom and we were without power- Walker’s South

    So we are going on 4 hours of no power already and the sun is barely up…guess it’s gonna be a beach day for us!

  20. Anonymous says:

    It was off before 4:00 a.m.

  21. Anonymous says:

    3rd world service…..

    • Anonymous says:

      You should visit the third world (or second world)to see how ridiculous your comment is. So you lose power for a few hours 2-3 times a year and you want sympathy??

      • Island girl says:

        All of you talking thrash about third world countries really need to get a grip. In third world countries power and water can be off for days. These problems happen now and then and you whiners are going crazy. Give thanks that it came back on or go get your own emergency generator.

        • Paul says:

          Actually I have a generator so my place was lovely and cool all day…. My point is that I come from a 1st world country and I can remember loosing electricity for most of the day approximately 4 times…. Over 39 years. See the f’in difference? And guess what… An average electrical bill would be about the equivalent of130 bucks a month… Including gas as well as electricity.

      • Anonymous says:

        YES! Especially when we pay $800 a month for that!!!!!!!!!!

        • Island girl says:

          The utilities can be a hefty bill yes, but I do believe you need to take some measures yourself to lower your bill. CUC personnel can give you tips on how to lower your bill and conserve energy. The services are very good, we only experience these issues once or twice a year.. That is a very good record. It happens all over the world and sometimes it’s off for days or weeks. count your blessings!!

          • Anonymous says:

            You clearly work for CUC. As your customer I DECIDE if your services are good- THEY ARE NOT. End of story.

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