WILLEMSTAD - The economy of Curaçao has suffered a major dent due to the blackout of yesterday. As a result, overall production was almost flat on the island. Many business owners are also angry about the problems at Aqualectra.

Several business owners expressed their frustration. Curaçao Chronicle spoke with several of them including a restaurant manager who said that her entire earnings of last weekend were lost just yesterday. She did pretty well during the weekend seeing the current economic situation but all that was gone yesterday. Her employees were present, but they couldn’t do any work.

Schools also suffered. These were closed earlier by order of the Ministry of Education. Companies, offices and shops that do not have a generator were forced to close the doors. At busy intersections with traffic lights, sometimes chaotic situations arose. Even accidents especially at the busiest intersection of the island, the Biesheuvel.

Just before noon, Aqualectra indicated during a first press briefing that the cause was still being sought, but that the electricity grid had shown too many fluctuations of too high and too low voltages since the second half of January, so that the safety mechanism makes the system switch off by itself.

Today, the utility company is keeping a close eye on the situation in the electricity grid but does not expect any major problems.