GIBRALTAR
(Source: The Gibraltar Chronicle/Brian Reyes / Photo: Gibraltar Chronicle) This will hardly come as news to anyone in Gibraltar yesterday. The Rock came to a standstill when a set of cables burnt out just near the Naval Dockyard entrance. The power outage lasted several hours, causing chaos with telecommunications systems and impacting hard on local businesses. A fault in a cable close to the dockyard area caused all three power stations in Gibraltar to trip on overload, resulting in a Rock-wide blackout. Internet systems went down and the mobile phone network provided only intermittent service.>Key installations including the hospital switched immediately to emergency power supplies, but most of Gibraltar was left in the dark. On Main Street, many traders were unable to attend to customers because their systems were down, while side street bars and restaurants were unable to offer even a hot cup of coffee.
It was particularly frustrating because the heart of town, which is busy on any day of the week, was heaving yesterday with tourists from two cruise ships. “I had one table of eight who had just sat down for breakfast when the power went,” said one restaurateur. “They just shrugged and left.” Based on past visits from the same ships, one shop owner estimated that he had missed out on several thousand pounds in trade.
It was unclear yesterday what led to the fault but engineers said problems of this nature were common on any network.
The fault was discovered by an engineer from the Gibraltar Electricity Authority [GEA] who happened to be in the area when the cable blew at around 10.12 yesterday morning. “He saw flames and smoke coming from the manhole and alerted the City Fire Brigade,” said Manolo Alecio, chief executive of the GEA.
The interconnector where the fault was located is part of a link running from power stations in the MoD area to the Waterport facility.
All three power stations are connected and provide backup to each other in the event of a problem. With all three down, that meant that the military estate, like the rest of Gibraltar, was left without power supply. “A lot of our equipment was down but our critical systems are protected so operationally we weren’t affected,” an MoD spokesman said.
The fact that the GEA engineer was in the area was a stroke of luck because often, the hardest part of fixing a fault is finding it in the first place. But this was a major blowout and with every power station encountering problems, the process of resuming supply was laborious and lengthy.
One district at a time, supply was eventually reconnected just after 1pm. The first to light up was the hospital area, with other zones following in staggered fashion to avoid power surges that could potentially disrupt the supply again.
For one district, however, the problems were not yet over. A transformer close to Bayside Boys Comprehensive School suffered an unrelated failure, leaving much of the surrounding area without electricity.
The transformer is next to the Sun Dial roundabout, which means installing a new one will present a major logistics challenge given the extensive works already underway in the area.
GibTelecom
Engineers at Gibtelecom also worked throughout the day to address persistent disruption to the company’s network, particularly its internet service. Part of the problem was that with all three power stations out of action, there was no backup power supply.
While some of the company’s locations are equipped with generators, others were forced to run on batteries until mobile generators could be put in place. “In the meantime we had to shut down some services to be able to run with limited power,” said Adrian Moreno, Gibtelecom’s operations manager.
When the power returned, some services were again disrupted.
Not only that but Gibtelecom technicians discovered that items of hardware had been damaged, further complicating efforts to resume service. But by around 6pm, the technicians finally succeeded in getting everyone back online.
“Everything has been restored,” said Mr Moreno. “We’re still working on some things in the background, but customers now have full service.”
(Source: The Gibraltar Chronicle/Brian Reyes / Photo: Gibraltar Chronicle) This will hardly come as news to anyone in Gibraltar yesterday. The Rock came to a standstill when a set of cables burnt out just near the Naval Dockyard entrance. The power outage lasted several hours, causing chaos with telecommunications systems and impacting hard on local businesses. A fault in a cable close to the dockyard area caused all three power stations in Gibraltar to trip on overload, resulting in a Rock-wide blackout. Internet systems went down and the mobile phone network provided only intermittent service.>Key installations including the hospital switched immediately to emergency power supplies, but most of Gibraltar was left in the dark. On Main Street, many traders were unable to attend to customers because their systems were down, while side street bars and restaurants were unable to offer even a hot cup of coffee.
It was particularly frustrating because the heart of town, which is busy on any day of the week, was heaving yesterday with tourists from two cruise ships. “I had one table of eight who had just sat down for breakfast when the power went,” said one restaurateur. “They just shrugged and left.” Based on past visits from the same ships, one shop owner estimated that he had missed out on several thousand pounds in trade.
It was unclear yesterday what led to the fault but engineers said problems of this nature were common on any network.
The fault was discovered by an engineer from the Gibraltar Electricity Authority [GEA] who happened to be in the area when the cable blew at around 10.12 yesterday morning. “He saw flames and smoke coming from the manhole and alerted the City Fire Brigade,” said Manolo Alecio, chief executive of the GEA.
The interconnector where the fault was located is part of a link running from power stations in the MoD area to the Waterport facility.
All three power stations are connected and provide backup to each other in the event of a problem. With all three down, that meant that the military estate, like the rest of Gibraltar, was left without power supply. “A lot of our equipment was down but our critical systems are protected so operationally we weren’t affected,” an MoD spokesman said.
The fact that the GEA engineer was in the area was a stroke of luck because often, the hardest part of fixing a fault is finding it in the first place. But this was a major blowout and with every power station encountering problems, the process of resuming supply was laborious and lengthy.
One district at a time, supply was eventually reconnected just after 1pm. The first to light up was the hospital area, with other zones following in staggered fashion to avoid power surges that could potentially disrupt the supply again.
For one district, however, the problems were not yet over. A transformer close to Bayside Boys Comprehensive School suffered an unrelated failure, leaving much of the surrounding area without electricity.
The transformer is next to the Sun Dial roundabout, which means installing a new one will present a major logistics challenge given the extensive works already underway in the area.
GibTelecom
Engineers at Gibtelecom also worked throughout the day to address persistent disruption to the company’s network, particularly its internet service. Part of the problem was that with all three power stations out of action, there was no backup power supply.
While some of the company’s locations are equipped with generators, others were forced to run on batteries until mobile generators could be put in place. “In the meantime we had to shut down some services to be able to run with limited power,” said Adrian Moreno, Gibtelecom’s operations manager.
When the power returned, some services were again disrupted.
Not only that but Gibtelecom technicians discovered that items of hardware had been damaged, further complicating efforts to resume service. But by around 6pm, the technicians finally succeeded in getting everyone back online.
“Everything has been restored,” said Mr Moreno. “We’re still working on some things in the background, but customers now have full service.”
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