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Engine trips, causes islandwide blackout
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Posted on Sep 05 2008
The entire island was without power for approximately 45 minutes yesterday, after an engine overheated and automatically shut down.
The cooling water and high temperatures automatically tripped and shut engine 8 at Power Plant 1 down, said Gary Camacho, Commonwealth Utilities Corp.’s Power Division manager.
“At that point in time, the island demand could not be met, and then of course, the rest of units experienced low frequency and they just automatically shut off,” he said. “Each and every one just started to shut off to protect itself.”
The blackout occurred around 3 pm, and power was restored approximately 45 minutes later, Camacho said. Engine 8 remained down yesterday afternoon, but engine 6, producing 5 megawatts, along with the engines at Power Plant 4, producing 14 megawatts, provided the island approximately 19 megawatts of power. Approximately 41 megawatts are needed to sufficiently power the island.
Camacho said CUC employees were working hard to get engine 8 operational in order to follow the load-shedding schedule.
“The power plant is doing the best they can. They’re working hard,” he said.
Engine 2, the fourth engine that has been operational on a regular basis at Power Plant 1, should be up by next week, Camacho said.
Eighteen Aggreko generators are expected to produce an additional 15 megawatts of power by Sept. 16 or 17.
