Amid the 10-hour blackout that shrouded sections of Trinidad in darkness, several Twitter users with internet access raised questions as the power restoration process lagged on Thursday (February 17). 

Sole power provider, Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (T&TEC), in its most recent update at 11:00 pm on Wednesday, said it expected full service resumption for customers by 1:00 am today. 

Only mainland Trinidad was affected by the blackout, the company indicated.

According to T&TEC, an undisclosed “fault” at 12:50 pm yesterday is being fingered as the cause of the electricity outage, which led to all generators operated by independent power providers (IPPs) failing. In a domino effect, the Trinidad electrical grid became unstable and went dark after the mishap. 

Becoming a matter of national urgency and getting the attention of Public Utilities Minister Marvin Gonzales, lights re-appeared over several major Trinidadian areas including Port of Spain, Couva, Maraval around 9:30 last night. 

See T&TEC statement in full below: 

“T&TEC continues to support the efforts of independent power producers (IPPs) to get power back onto the grid for distribution to its customers, after a fault developed on the T&TEC system at appropriately 12:50 pm today (Wednesday). 

The fault caused T&TEC two major Ghandi Village/Union Estate 220 KV lines to trip. This resulted in system instability and caused all the generating machines operated by IPPs to trip, leading to a loss of supply to all customers in Trinidad. Tobago was unaffected and continued to be served from the Cove Power Station. 

At approximately 1:30 pm, the IPPs were directed to restart their generators. Restarting the generators from zero is known as a black start, however, there were some unforeseen delays in completing this process. 

Restoration of supply commenced at approximately 5:00 pm, with customers in some parts of Penal. At this time all the IPPs have started their generators and most customers from Penal to Mount Hope are back on supply. Barring unforeseen circumstances, we expect to restore supply to the rest of the island (east, further north and west) by 1:00 am. 

We again apologise for the extended outage and aggravated inconvenience caused. T&TEC is mindful of its mandate to provide customers with a safe and reliable supply of electricity and reaffirms its commitment to do so. The Commission will share further information on this incident tomorrow, when internal assessments are more advanced.”

Tens of thousands of citizens were without power for a prolonged period, with the State-operated Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) reporting the impact of the blackout on some 40 water treatment plants, 107 booster stations, 210 groundwater sources as well as desalination and wastewater facilities across north and south Trinidad. 

In an update this morning, however, WASA assured that all but two facilities—Aripo and North Trinidad—have returned to full operational capacity. The authority further cautioned that it may take between 24 to 72 hours for water supply to normalise in some affected areas. 

Trini Twitter milked the islandwide blackout as a prime opportunity for comedic relief as some joked about surviving the ‘Great Trinidad Reset’. 

Many were more serious though, using the time to urge citizens to throw out short-life foods such as eggs, fresh meats and other products that may have spent hours without refrigeration. 

There were those who even contended that perhaps, the backlash to Miss World TT Jeanine Brandt‘s most recent comments about poverty was misplaced and that things weren’t so great in Trinidad despite how the country would like to see itself portrayed.

Trini Twitter seemed to revel in the chaos as memes continued well into the night.

Me to T&TEC: pic.twitter.com/q24Y4Rz6oG

— Michael (@Angelo_vo) February 16, 2022

More reactions:

Others still questioned how an outage of such magnitude was allowed to happen in the first instance—lamenting the incoming ‘tidal wave’ of T&TEC claims as well as the resulting long-wait times over damaged residential and commercial-grade electrical devices.

A few more insisted Trinbagonians use the blackout as a ‘warm up’ for the 2022 Hurricane Season, as the twin-island republic is occasionally brushed by strong storms.  

READ:

• Major power outage plunges sections of Trinidad and Tobago into darkness
• UPDATE: TTEC says power restoration ‘under way’ in Trinidad, may take hours