By Darcel Choy Friday, July 30 2010

The three workers who were injured and hospitalised after an explosion on Wednesday at a TT Electricity Commission (TTEC) Sub-Station have been discharged.

The explosion which left parts of downtown Port-of-Spain in complete darkness for almost two hours, occurred at the Flament Street 6600 volt Sub Station due to a failure on the Bus Section Breaker connected to the 12Kc switchboard.

The injured men, Gerald Simmons, sub station foreman, Kenrick Ramsaroop, meter and relay mechanic and Clyde Khan, electrician, sustained minor burns to their backs and necks from the heat of the explosion which occurred in the breaker room in which they were working. They were taken to the St Clair Medical Centre where they remained overnight. In a release, TTEC stated Ramsaroop and Khan were both released before noon yesterday. Simmons was being kept for further observation and was expected to be discharged soon after.

TTEC general manager Indarjit Singh said in their investigations they found that a “current transformer chamber” to be the cause of the explosion. On Wednesday, Public Utilities Minister Emmanuel George requested a comprehensive report on the incident, which Singh said he handed over yesterday morning.

He admitted some of the equipment at the Sub Station was old and TTEC has been making steps into upgrading the system. “For the past ten years, we have been building over the system from a 6600 volt to a 12,000 volt, so ten years had this happened, the whole of Port-of-Spain would have been in darkness.

“We gradually reduced the area the original system served and extended the higher voltage system into it so everything was reduced,” he said.

He said the entire project cost up to $100 million and he expects the lower voltage system to be discontinued in five years. When George was contacted, he confirmed receiving TTEC’s report and said he will continue meeting with them to ensure they deal with the regularity of power outages.

“I hope with me raising the issues will promote some kind of urgency for TTEC to deal with these issues.

While there are people who will tolerate the incidental outage, they do not want that as a regular feature of their lives, our role in government is to make people comfortable, when they are uncomfortable we become uncomfortable so these issues need to be sorted out,” he said.