ANGLEC’s CEO, Mr. Sutcliffe Hodge, says 100 percent of the island’s customers have had their electrical supplies restored, and he expressed gratitude to the local and overseas technicians for their dedicated work in the aftermath of the recent thunderstorms.
He made his statements relative to the island-wide electricity outage brought on by Hurricane Tammy’s acute lightning strikes. Mr. Hodge was at the time speaking with DJ Hammer on Klass FM Radio on Monday 30th October, 2023.
He said: “Now, there are no known customers who should be connected who are not connected. And in case there are any such customers out there, they are to call in to our office to report that they are not connected. But as far as we are aware, all customers are now reconnected.”
“I want to take this opportunity,” Mr. Hodge said, “on behalf of the Board of Directors of ANGLEC, the Management and the staff of ANGLEC, to extend a really big thank you to all of our customers for their patience and understanding during the power outage.”
He noted that the Board of Directors and ANGLEC’s management team would like to thank all of the staff for the hard work and long dedicated hours spent on the job in order to restore electricity to the entire island.
“As the leader of the team,” he reflected, “I must say that I am proud to be associated with these very dedicated workers.”
The CEO reported that in addition to the lightning strike on ANGLEC’s generating plant at Corito on the night of Sunday 22nd October, 2023, the company also suffered the loss of twenty-four transformers out in the field. He said that some of them were actually blown up by the lightning. “There were several explosions,” he said.
Mr. Hodge alluded to the fact that though the thunderstorm affected ANGLEC with treacherous lightning strikes, there were similar strikes in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, as well. “So it is not just an Anguilla event,” he stated.
“The thunderstorm was an event that affected the entire region,” he said. “These unusual weather phenomena are events that we must learn to cope with and we must try to find ways to mitigate against them. If these kinds of storms continue to occur with greater frequency and intensity, we have to find creative ways to work around them.”
The CEO thanked the engineers who worked diligently to get the system restored in such a short time. “I am grateful to the staff. I am particularly thankful to the Wartsila and Caterpillar technicians from overseas who came in and help to get the plant up to speed and in good condition. And, it would be remiss of me if I do not highlight the quality work, the dedication and the high skills level of our own Anguillian technicians. Thanks once again.”
In related news, Mr. Hodge said that although some water got into the plant, as anyone would expect, that water had absolutely no role to play in affecting the loss of power which was due exclusively to the lighting strike on the generating units.
