Tuesday night Country-wide blackout caused by an imbalance | SOUALIGA NEWSDAY

SINT MAARTEN (PHILIPSBURG) – At approximately 11.51 pm on Tuesday evening June 29, the NV GEBE power plant encountered an imbalanced frequency which caused some of the production units at the Cay Bay power plant to exceed their maximum allowed output in an attempt to maintain the grid frequency of 60 hertz, NV GEBE said in a press statement on Wednesday afternoon.

“The aforementioned triggered several protection devices which in turns automatically shutdown several production units ultimately creating a cascading effect that led to an island wide (Dutch side) blackout.

“Ensuing the problem, the engineers and technical team assessed the issue at power plant and began with the incremental power restoration process, whereby the last outgoing feeder was re-energize at approximately 2.30am,” the NV GEBE press release concludes.