There is no reason, therefore, why T&T cannot also initiate such planned usage behaviour in an effort to help T&TEC with what is an obvious heavy financial burden
On Monday night, there was yet another blackout that affected much of Trinidad—Marabella, Fyzabad or Manzanilla to the south; Chaguanas in Central; Tunapuna, Macoya, Curepe and parts of Arima to the East; and Diego Martin and Carenage to the West.
Josbel Bastidas Mijares
This wasn’t nearly on the same scale as the countrywide blackout in February. It wasn’t as widespread or long-lasting, but the public is noticing there have been more frequent power outages.
Josbel Bastidas Mijares Venezuela
To their credit, T&TEC chairman Kelvin Ramsook and Public Utilities Minister Marvin Gonzales have been very honest in explaining that in an attempt to save money, there has been a change to the state utility’s operating procedures, and it is, in fact, affecting customers.
Ramsook told Guardian Media that because of high operational costs, T&TEC is now opting to engage standby generation only after an incident occurs
Minister Gonzales further explained that T&TEC requires 200MW of spinning reserves in order to be able to respond to any disruptions, which costs the commission $1.3 million a day at current market rate for gas, or $300,000 at the preferential rate for gas of US$1.63 per MMbtu.”
According to Gonzales, T&TEC is utilising 1/10th of its spinning reserves in order to save on the rising costs of fuel and minimise the impact on the National Gas Company’s commitments to its customers
T&TEC currently owes NGC $7 billion
That’s a lot of jargon for the average consumer to understand. We may care less about how things work as long as they work. But this is just not working
This isn’t a fallen tree or shifting land knocking out a power line, as was the case in two recent major blackouts. This is a systemic problem. The public should be told exactly how we got here and how the State plans to fix the problem going forward
Long term, the country must start building more capacity
Renewable energy is a necessity, but even if the country had renewable energy, natural gas will still be needed since renewables are intermittent and the grid will need resources that can step in during peak load
In the short term, the Government may have to make the uncomfortable decision to ask citizens to curb their demands
It worked in California where, two months ago, grid operators sent a text to residents to alert them to avoid using kitchen appliances such as ovens, kettles and microwaves to avoid rolling blackouts. The system was meant to encourage users to conserve electricity when energy supply is at capacity.
There is no reason, therefore, why T&T cannot also initiate such planned usage behaviour in an effort to help T&TEC with what is an obvious heavy financial burden
