TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin GEBE statement

Friday, May 31, 2024
General Public Statement NV GEBE

For Immediate Release

In light of the recent articles published by several Media Houses regarding NV GEBE, NV GEBE seeks to clarify the information released and is committed to ensuring the public receives accurate information about our company’s generation resources, both in its dissemination and reception.

The current state of affairs at NV GEBE's power plant is as follows: the company operates a fleet of ten traditional power generation units, which are reciprocating diesel engines. Out of these ten units, three (30% of the total fleet) have exceeded their technical lifespan of 30 years. Although these units are still operational and serve as peak shavers to meet daily demand, they are less efficient and unreliable, posing various challenges. These aging units account for an estimated 18% of the company’s total operational capacity and are a primary cause of reduced efficiency.

In addition to efficiency concerns, the increase in climate change and temperature across the Caribbean, coupled with a growing economy, has led to a rapid increase in load demand. This has created several challenges for the company in maintaining its reliability criteria, known as N-2. This criterion is used industry-wide, where power utility companies plan for contingencies involving the loss of their two largest production units while still being able to meet customer demand.

On May 5th, 2024, the company experienced an issue with one of its largest production units, Diesel Generator Set # 19, due to a bearing failure. Experts are currently assessing whether the bearing journal can be repaired. This unit was scheduled for a major overhaul in the fourth quarter of this year, but due to the recent failure, the company has decided to perform the major overhaul simultaneously with the bearing assessment. Consequently, N.V. GEBE is no longer in alignment with the N-2 reliability criteria. The situation is critical because the company is also not meeting the lower standard of the N-1 criterion which involves the loss of one production unit due to record high demand. This misalignment is the main cause of the current load shedding.

Presently, all remaining nine production units are operational, and the team at the power plant is working diligently to address any arising issues to mitigate widespread load shedding. Additionally, NV GEBE emphasizes the importance of adhering to the preventive maintenance program to maintain current reliability despite ongoing challenges. The company is pursuing both short-term solutions to curb load shedding and long-term solutions to address increasing load demand and improve the reliability of the power plant.”

You have to laugh at the line in the 3rd paragraph blaming the mythical “climate change” as one of their reasons for these issues!

I must say the day and night temperature are running about 2 degrees warmer this May than previous years same days.

ARC--there's nothing mythical about it. Temps are warmer everywhere. Record temps all across the Caribbean. My brother in law just moved to St. Croix and they have been having load shedding every day for at least the past month. Heat advisories across all of the USVI. Here in our area, in May 2024, every single day of the month the temperature was above the normal for that day, except for ONE. Meanwhile, knock on wood, our power grid here seems pretty stable, while GEBE and the USVI power authority are way behind the curve. GEBE is fully to blame, as well as government for allowing unrestricted building everywhere.

As soon as they can add some new diesel power generators that problem will be solved. Perhaps they could resurrect the Covid Tax on visitors to pay for more generators.

That ship. I mean money. Is long gone.

What I don't get, did they think these generators were going to last forever??? 30 years ago, the amount of new builds was less than half it is today! No one can predict the future, but they had to figure based on progress from the past, these would not be able to service this new development!!

David--for sure. They are building all over here, which I hate, actually, but I see crews all over the place here, putting up new poles, strengthening infrastructure, etc. GEBE 'service' will continue to get worse and worse, as they aren't keeping up now and government allows developers to build and build and build.

It’s just awful. I’m really considering selling my condo after this winter season. Between utility issues, over building and the recent gun involved crime I’m just not sure this is where I want to be.

And now gebe has another fire. I’ll try to post the video from Facebook. It’s an open “media account” not actual police.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/TwMEiNT747yALjW8/?mibextid=KsPBc6

Sorry to hear that Kim. I'm sure that would be a hard thing to do.

At this point, I am happy to stay on the French side!

And apparently now a total Dutch side power blackout. Ridiculous.

Sad but true. If not on a generator you're screwed.

I've been going to St. Maarten for 25 years and I have never understood why resorts have not gone more with solar panels. Likely harder for individual owners.
And with a prevailing wind every day, maybe wind power??

Solar panels and hurricanes, think about it.

Another news outlet reporting the incident at Gebe Electric Company.
https://smn-news.com/index.php/st-m...ine-9-caught-fire-on-sunday-morning.html

For the 33 years we owned a villa in St. Maarten there have always been power outages. We live in Vermont and the power goes out a dozen times a year. The winter is the worst with no heat and electric, the refrigerator filled with food going bad.
Get used to it folks, it is only the beginning.

Food shouldn't go bad in Vermont in the winter for lack of refrigeration, but whatever.

JD--I could be wrong, often am, but I thought there was some regulation in SXM against having solar panels?? Regardless, actually there are tons and tons of solar panels in Florida, which has been known to have a couple of hurricanes. My limited understanding of them is that they really aren't that risky of blowing away in hurricanes, BUT they do cause issues with leaks in the roof, if not property installed.

I thought that's what Bruno was selling now???

Carol,
there are lots of solar panels in SXM. I can walk up the street past Mullet Bay clinic by the New Pickleball courts, and there is a solar panel farm of at least 20 large commercial solar panels.

Drphilsxm

Just a point of interest, these exact solar panels were replacements for the original solar panels that were destroyed by Irma in 2017. I'm aware that solar panels do relatively well in hurricanes, but Irma wasn't your typical hurricane.

Another issue yesterday and this morning is with Telem the Internet and phone company on the island. Their whole system is down so no Wi-Fi or phone service at this time.

Drphilsxm

Phil--ok, thanks for the correction, and for the additional (unwelcome) information. Doesn't seem like a good time for us to be heading down island..

I assume the electric is back on?

Linda--I forgot about Bruno, but he is on the French side and they often have different rules.

We've had wifi this morning and still do. Depends on the provider.

Yes depends on the provider. Flow seemed to be up and running. I am with Telem. They had a complete island outage. As of 10:00 AM my Wi-Fi in MAHO, which is fibre is running as normal.
Until next time 😃

Drphilsxm

Well for the big problem with GEBE , a lot of us will venture towards Solar Panel .
Our Generator is since 1999 from Lenny , 10 KW .