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BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, September 07 (SKNIS) – During a visit to the Power Station at Needsmust Estate earlier this morning (Wednesday, September 07), Prime Minister the Honourable Dr. Terrance Drew expressed his appreciation and support for the hardworking staff there.

The Prime Minister’s visit to the Power Station comes as the St. Kitts Electricity Company Ltd (SKELEC) commenced a load shedding exercise on September 05 as a result of a failure on the alternator of one of the company’s main generators. According to SKELEC, that failure, in addition to overhauls and other equipment failures reduced the power plant to half of its capacity.

While Prime Minister Dr. Drew said that he empathizes with the concerns of the thousands of electricity consumers on the island, he noted that the work being undertaken by the staff at Needsmust Power Plant should not be understated.

“I want the country to appreciate what you all are doing here. You guys work in these shops, people are just seeing electricity when they press a switch but they don’t understand that there are real people here who have to go sometimes beyond the call of duty to make sure that they can turn on a switch or get a glass of cold water or iron a shirt. So, I want you all to know that we appreciate all that you are doing,” the Prime Minister said as he greeted the staff members of the plant.

To alleviate some of the load shedding that is currently being experienced, the Federal Cabinet approved the purchase of additional generation capacity, and to resolve the problem in the long term, the Cabinet has also agreed to facilitate the purchase of dual-fuel, high power density generating sets (GenSets).