Walter Finch
RESIDENTS in several areas of Gibraltar spent Saturday night in darkness following a power outage that affected the upper town and eastern beaches for up to six hours.
The Gibraltar Electricity Authority (GEA) has confirmed that a high voltage cable fault disrupted power to the upper town, Catalan Bay, Sandy Bay, Hassans Centenary Terraces and Beach View Terraces beginning around 10.30pm on March 29.
Initial reports suggested the outage might have been caused by problems with the gas supply from the LNG Terminal, but GEA officials stressed that ‘at no point was there an issue with the LNG Terminal which could have resulted in any unsafe situation or in the venting of natural gas.’
Teams of engineers were quickly deployed to affected substations to locate and isolate the fault.
The authority has stated that preliminary investigations point to cable failure rather than damage caused by a contractor, though further detailed investigation is still pending.
Power was restored to the upper town around midnight, while Hassans Centenary Terraces and Beach View Terraces had electricity back shortly after 12.30am.
Residents of Catalan Bay and Sandy Bay had a longer wait, with their power only being restored around 4.45am after engineers traced the problem to a section of cable running from Eastern Beach to the old Caleta Palace Hotel site.
Under the supervision of the GEA’s Chief Executive Officer, technicians had to reconfigure high voltage circuits to safely restore power to all affected areas.
GEA has apologised to affected residents for the inconvenience caused during the overnight outage.
