25,000 customers hit by CUC power cut
(CNS): A widespread power outage across Grand Cayman on Sunday afternoon impacted the majority of CUC customers for as long as two and a half hours in some areas. CUC officials confirmed that over 25,000 customers from West Bay to East End experienced interruptions to their electricity supply from around 4:50pm until around 7:30pm. While some homes were without power for just minutes, others were impacted for the full period.
“This interruption to service was caused by faults in the control systems of three major generating units at the North Sound Plant,” CUC said Monday in a press release explaining the power cut. “Interim measures and system upgrades are in progress to reduce the likelihood of similar outages
reoccurring. Large outages such as these are rare. However, from time to time they can occur on a small island power system,” the company added.
CUC said that it would continue to install and maintain modern and efficient generating systems to provide the highest level of reliability in the region.
“Four major reliability projects currently on schedule for completion by year-end include increased black start generating capacity and a major upgrade of the control centre at the North Sound Road plant, a new distribution substation on the West Bay Road and a new replacement distribution substation in the Prospect Area, all of which are intended to provide additional capacity and reliability to our customers,” CUC officials added as they apologised for the inconvenience the outage caused.
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid
This is Cayman
Everyone should get solar allowances on this island. Oh wait, to many hands in the money bag at CUC who could allow that. 🖕 cuc
Was it those darn trees again?!
CUC achieves ‘perfect reliability record’
There were jubilant scenes at Sparky Drive last night, as CUC bosses celebrated yet another 100% delivery rate.
“We successfully delivered 100% of our bills on time in the last 12 months” managers reported, “which means that our bonuses and dividends will be coming on line exactly as expected, with zero cuts”
CUC needs to invest in battery backup technology deployed from their substations. TESLA large backup systems or equivalent.
https://caymannewsservice.com/2019/09/cuc-greenlight-battery-storage/
So the only electric company on the island has no back up generators for when other generators fail?
CUC (all utilities) more details on what specifically went wrong please. “Faults in the control systems” is barely better than ‘something broke’.
In my 7 years in Florida it never happened. Not even during direct hit 2017 hurricane. Some SWFL areas were without power for up to a month, but our system only flicked once.
It was the entire island. The only people with power were those with generators.
not true. mine stayed on….smith rd.
that’s what you get when you produce electricty like a third world country….
Outages can happen anywhere.
LMAO Nope. Fake news.
Maybe in other Caribbean countries, 3rd world countries and those with sub par service records. But that is not just ‘anywhere’.
Bit of a stupid statement really. While the statement is true it is not relevant. Whether they do happen or not is more relevant.
Apologies cost them nothing and these outages do not stop their profits going up and up. There should be a mandatory refund requirement to every customer in these circumstances, perhaps 10% of the previous monthly bill.
We don’t pay anything to CUC while there’s a power outage dohdoh.
If FLOW goes down, you get charged by the minute too?
If WAC stops pumping water, you get charged for 10 gallons?
There is a minimum charge weather you’ve used electricity or not! Are outages shown in their financials as a loss of revenue?
Generally CUC provides great service, compared to the power companies of some neighbouring companies. But if Cayman is to be believably marketed as any near “first world”, CUC needs to address the regular failures which have been experienced over the past few years. They need to invest in whatever technical upgrades/improvements are required, asap! We pay “healthy” power costs so they have no excuse!
Anyway, thanks CUC that power failures here are not all-day or days long!
Third-world service!
First world prices
actually their outage rates are way better than anywhere else in the carribean….but we do pay for it!
Well how about providing some factual statistics to support your statement?
“…on a small island power system.”, the company said.
The company left out, “…that generates millions annually.”
Everytime there’s a power outage that damn LED streetlight outside of my bedroom window starts flickering….🤬
Why do we have so many streetlights? Can we get rid of most of them? They serve little purpose, pollute the night sky, waste energy, and cost millions.
Major European countries manage to do fine without them, including along major roads. Why can’t we.
Criminality is rampant
I think we need more in some areas!
I have heard all of these excuses and apologies before and I am not interested in hearing them again. Please just let me know where I can go to get compensated for the equipment that your incompetence destroyed.
The government should also consider removing the tax on deep cycle batteries so that people can start to reduce their dependence on CUC to satisfy their electricity requirements.
Exactly!
Yeah, right, excuses, excuses, excuses……….