Mabaruma without power after second generator fails

The township of Mabaruma, in Region One, is now without electri-city as both of its generators have become non-functioning, Regional Chairman Brentnol Ashley has said.

Stabroek News had reported last week that the town was relying on one of its two generators after the other went down last Thursday.

Ashley, in a telephone interview with Stabroek News, said the second generator stopped working on Monday.

He said both generators have damaged fuel injectors and he blamed the situation on a lack of maintenance.

According to Ashley, there is uncertainty about the restoration of power as he has not received any updates from the Regional Executive Officer (REO) on the region’s intention to address the situation.

He stated that in the past Tel’s Engineering was contracted for the maintenance of the generators.

Following the failure of the first generator, the power supply was staggered to the township. “The region is responsible for the power supply to residents and we have submitted a proposal to the [Regional Executive Officer] but he never signed off on it and no maintenance was done of the 750 kVA generator. So, this has resulted in limited power supply in the township,” Ashley related in a previous report.

Meanwhile, asked yesterday to comment on the power outage at Santa Rosa Mission, in the Moruca sub-region of the North West District, Ashley said he was not given an update on the situation.

The community was hit with a power outage due to a burst power line. A power line burst while some residents were cutting a tree at Santa Rosa last week. The issue was expected to be remedy by Sunday.

Stabroek News’ efforts to contact the REO were unsuccessful.

Ashely had previously complained about the non-functioning $200 million solar farm in the region. He opined that if energy was being collected from the farm, the disruptions would be a thing of the past.

He argued that despite the farm being completed, there are several issues that need to be rectified. “It is looking like a waste of money because it is not functioning. There is no storage capacity for a long period, a transformer is reportedly damaged and they have been reluctant to fix it. I don’t know what is happening with that project,” he said.