TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Update from GEBE re generators, sort of

"The containerized generators were all transported to the Power Plant on Wednesday 17th of July. All seven (7) generators were placed awaiting the auxiliaries (fuel tanks, transformers, switch gears and control office) to arrive today, 18th of July.

The schedule for the upcoming weeks is to execute the grounding, fuel lines, high-voltage cable installation, and communications. Once in place, the immediate plant will alleviate the loadshedding.

NV GEBE regrets the inconvenience that the loadshedding has caused to customers and remains steadfast in its efforts to rapidly have the immediate plant commissioned and operational as per schedule.

NV GEBE will continue to share ongoing updates on the project progress to the community."

And again, absolutely ZERO idea of when they will actually be operational.

"The schedule for the upcoming weeks is to execute the grounding, fuel lines, high-voltage cable installation, and communications."

All of this could have been done while the generators where shipping.

This stinks of learning by doing. Let's hope that they find the right button to start them up ...

They are doing the best that they can… It is a joke!

Many things are being said by people who have never had a generator power plant, never had to bring in a spare trailer/container-mounted generator, have no clue how a rental generator would be connected to the main power plant, and how that rental generator would be paralleled with the main power plant. I’m hoping that GEBE has the in-house staff and engineers to do all of that.

I will say just one thing.

It ain’t easy.

Say what you want, this will not be an easy fix no matter how they go about it! Let's pray no one gets hurt!! This aint like getting a lil zap from a 110 outlet!!

It is even more difficult when you have no plan, no anticipation and no accountability.

FYI, in 2014 they lost all customer data, same in 2023.

In 2019, they bought a new engine and, without waiting, they immediately took down the other ones to perform maintenance. The new one broke down due to teething' issues and there was a blackout.

Honestly, GEBE's track record is studded with incompetence, arrogance, opacity and nepotism.

I admire your faith in such a useless company. Remind me next time I screw up to hire you as my PR officer ...

Jeff Thornton--not sure who you are referring to, as having faith in GEBE. I don't really see anyone here defending them.

Quote Bahston "Many things are being said by people who have never had a generator power plant"

Not faith in GEBE but excusing them.

Setting up diesel generators is not rocket science. I would be incapable of doing it myself, as the people who can do it are incapable of doing many things that I learnt.

Each has her/his own skills and I would have thought that if GEBE are incapable of doing it, they would have hired some specialists.

That's the workers jobs .