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Fuel delivery affecting Port Kaituma power supply – residents
Residents of Port Kaituma, Region One, are complaining that although the damaged generators that supply the area with electricity were fixed several weeks ago, there is now an issue with fuel sustenance to keep the community powered.
The 628 KVA and 500 KVA generators were repaired, after a prolonged load shedding, since August 2013.
According to the power house operator, Gladwin Fordyce, the generators take six-hour intervals to power the community, however, the late fuel delivery and stock has been affecting the use of the
One of the generators used to power the Port Kaituma community.
generators, causing severe power outages.
“Fuel is not coming on time to have the generators up and running. On Monday, the fuel finished at 3:00pm and fuel came at 8:00pm. And I notified the fuel suppliers since 7:00am that morning about the shortage.”
Lamenting on the storage of fuel and the manner in which it is handled, Fordyce said “I have told them (officials) repeated times that when the fuel suppliers come they throw out four drums on the ground, “blam, blam”. Sometimes the fuel leaks out, the pump would come off, the barrel bursts… which makes it a hazardous condition, because it goes into the drains and even into the 4,000 volts cable line in the concrete drains. If the cable has a knit and it gets fuel then it is real problems.”
He explained that fuel should not be stored in the pump house, however, when fuel arrives late in the evening there is no other option. The fuel, he said, should be stored in the bulk storage tank since manually pumping it out into the generators is very dangerous.
“There are three tanks, holding 5,000 litres each, but only one has ever gone into operation. So if four drums of diesel are thrown into the container, the pipelines that run to the engine would only supply about three drums to the generator, thus manual pumping is done also to make sure the engines get all the fuel, and as such, fuel is always needed on time.”
Adding that the larger engine burns 20.3 gallons per hour and the smaller 10.6 gallons per hour, Fordyce further explained that the larger engine would be run in the night since many more persons would utilize power at night as many persons work in the day.
Underscoring that the hospital and commercial bank need consistent electricity to operate, Chrisne David, who has been a mechanic for over four decades said when a public meeting is held within the community, many of these issues will be ventilated, including the funding for repairs and fuel for the community and incompetence of officials. (Rabindra Rooplall)
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