Castries, May 26, 2015 – At 2:15 a.m. today the island experienced a total shutdown of the power system.

The shutdown was triggered by a fault on one of the generators at LUCELEC’s Cul De Sac power station leading to a subsequent overloading of the remaining generators resulting in the power system shutdown.

Initial indications are that some of the systems did not operate as designed resulting in the shutdown and some delay in the restoration of the system to its normal state.

Power was restored across the island at approximately 5:32 a.m.

Effective immediately, anyone applying for a new electricity connection, including temporary connections from the St Lucia Electricity Services Limited (LUCELEC) must provide a copy of a current land register for the location at which the connection is required. This document is in addition to the existing requirements of an Inspection Certificate from the Ministry of Infrastructure, Port Services and Transport as well as a valid national identification document (ID).

St Lucia Electricity Services Limited (LUCELEC) has installed close to two hundred and fifty (250) LED streetlights in the city centre in Castries. The new streetlights replaced High Pressure Sodium (HPS) lamps in a move designed to decrease the amount of energy consumed by street lighting.