WILLEMSTAD – Aqualectra has clarified that residents who experience a power outage in the coming days should not automatically assume that the utility company has resumed its rotating load-shedding program. Local technical failures can still leave individual neighborhoods without electricity even when sufficient generation capacity is available.
The clarification follows Aqualectra’s announcement earlier this week that, based on current projections, it does not expect to have to implement scheduled load shedding in the days leading up to the weekend.
That announcement came after several days of electricity shortages during which neighborhoods across Curaçao were disconnected in rotation because available generation capacity was insufficient to meet demand.
Aqualectra said there is an important distinction between load shedding, locally known as “schakel,” and a regular power outage caused by a technical problem.
Load shedding is deliberately implemented when electricity production is insufficient to meet total demand. A local outage, on the other hand, can occur even when the island has enough generating capacity.
According to Aqualectra, its technicians deal with such local disruptions on a daily basis across Curaçao.
These outages can have several causes, including traffic accidents involving utility poles, damaged or burned fuses, fires and other technical problems affecting the distribution network.
Aqualectra said that when a technical failure is extensive, affects a large number of customers or is expected to take considerable time to repair, the company will generally inform the public through its Facebook page.
Customers who lose power but see no announcement from Aqualectra are advised to contact the company’s customer service center. Staff can then determine whether a technical failure has been reported in their area and provide additional information.
The distinction is particularly important following the electricity problems Curaçao experienced over the past week. Aqualectra has been operating with several conventional generating units unavailable, leaving the electricity system more dependent on wind generation and battery storage.
One of four generating units that had been out of service has since returned to production, providing additional capacity. Aqualectra has nevertheless cautioned that three machines remain unavailable and that renewable generation can fluctuate depending on weather conditions.
The company continues working to repair the remaining generating units and restore greater stability to Curaçao’s electricity supply.
For now, Aqualectra says its forecast remains favorable enough that rotating outages are not expected. However, an outage affecting a particular street or neighborhood can still occur because of an unrelated fault in the electricity distribution network.