PUCDamageunderseacable2019 Work still on to restore full electricity supply on La Digue |17 August 2019

The Public Utilities Corporation has announced that the company is doing its utmost to restore full electricity supply on La Digue after the residents have been experiencing interruptions since Wednesday morning as a result of a fault on one of its undersea cables.

The chief executive of Public Utilities Corporation (PUC), Philippe Morin, said in an interview yesterday at the Electricity House, Roche Caïman, that an electricity generator was being moved to La Digue from the Baie Saint Anne Praslin power station to help alleviate the situation until the undersea cable could be resurfaced for repair.

The 1.2 megawatt generator is expected to arrive on La Digue by this evening or early tomorrow for preparations to set it in motion.

Mr Morin said that if everything goes well, La Digue residents will start to experience a better supply of electricity as from late tomorrow, Sunday.

Mr Morin said that the faulty cable, among the two electricity undersea cables that transfer electricity from Praslin to La Digue, has been located near Round Island. He noted that the main problem is the rough sea which is preventing the divers getting the cable to the surface for repair.

Mr Morin further said the divers will keep on trying until they retrieve the 2.5 megawatt cable which had been sea bedded in 2008.

He noted that once the cable is surfaced, it will take PUC just eight hours maximum to repair it but for the time being to retrieve it depends on the weather.

“The problem is not about repairing the cable but to get the cable from the deep to the surface, that is our main problem,” Mr Morin said.

To prevent overloading on the other small 1 megawatt cable that was submerged in 1985, PUC has since Wednesday rationed electricity on the island while it continues to monitor the demand.

The generator being transported to La Digue was commissioned for the island of La Digue in the first place but had to temporarily stay on Praslin since its arrival on the island two months ago, to help in electricity supply due to work being done at the power station which saw the shutdown of two other generators.

“In view of the electricity situation on La Digue we had to take the risk of removing the generator from Praslin and to bring it over there. We hope to commission it by late Sunday evening if everything goes well and that will help in removing some of the electricity restrictions in place,” Mr Morin said, noting that now Praslin is faced with a reduced electricity capacity of 1.2 megawatt.

With the work still ongoing at the power station, he hoped that nothing worse happens which may result in power restriction on the island as well.

Mr Morin said it is not the first time that such incident and other issues have happened with the same undersea cable and that PUC is very concerned about the matter. To remedy the situation for the future, he said PUC is seeking financing, of around R100 million, to place a third cable (double armoured) which will less likely get damaged.

In the meantime, residents of La Digue are advised to reduce their electricity uses so as to avoid cable overload while electricity interruptions are still in force at different times from 6am to 12 noon, 12 noon to 6pm, 6pm to midnight and midnight to 6am in the different areas.

According to residents and visitors on the island, the power cut is causing a number of inconveniences such as the inability to make payments by debit or credit card or even to withdraw money from ATMs.

“Restaurants and hotels have had limited menus as well because of the power cuts,” one person explained.

“It feels like they take all the electricity from us and supply La Passe for the festival which leaves our businesses in a rut. The tourists are complaining to the guesthouses and hotels; some ask for their money back but it’s none of our faults and this puts us in a bad position,” a guesthouse owner stated.

Some have alleged that the power cuts have not gone in accordance to the schedule published by PUC for different areas on La Digue.