With the commissioning of the generating sets having been completed, the plant is now undergoing commissioning in respect of its control and automation systems. Because of the particular conditions we operate in, i.e. an island mode, with no connection to any other countries’ electrical network, these tests must be carried out on the live grid which will unfortunately increase the chances of power outages occurring, ultimately affecting our customers.

The commissioning of the control and automation systems will continue to take place both during the daytime and at night time. We understand that our customers might ask why these tests need to be conducted during the daytime, and not at night time when the inconvenience caused by a power outage is considerably less. Unfortunately given our unique circumstances, it is during the daytime that we experience our peak power demands, and it is only then that we can fully tests our systems, instead of at night time when we experience our lowest power demands.

The commissioning phase is critical when looking to taking over a new Power Station, and therefore we would like to take the opportunity to thank our customers for their continued support despite recent power cuts during this period of testing and commissioning and apologise for any inconvenience that any further power outages may cause.

21-01-2020 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR