The Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA) has held an emergency meeting to address a series of recent power outages affecting several communities.
The meeting, led by CEO John Bradshaw, brought together senior officials and engineers from the Electricity and Water Business Units to review the incidents. While each outage had different causes, engineers outlined the faults and contributing factors.
Officials said the power interruptions also disrupted water production, inconveniencing households and businesses. Bradshaw pledged to prioritise corrective action and strengthen maintenance to prevent future disruptions.
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Just mashing up ppl ting, I fed up with yall not taking accountablility.
Ummm. We need to know what cause these issues sir. And how you going to address them so they don’t occur.
this ah one big talk shop as nutten na go change. APUA just go do people whatever them feel and when you call to inquire, they have the poor staff lying to the public day and night
Me wudder like them fu buy back me AC whey dem stupidness mash up cuz right now this heat killing me jock. Tired a d off n on every time.
When I proposed hotline work years ago , suffering in the snow in Idaho at Northwest lineman college on pole mounted fibre glass platform the hard way of training just to benefit my country like I have done in other utility companies when I lived and work abroad, I was fought tooth and nail by the immediate superiors of the T&D department, and the electricity manager who never venture near any electricity to do anything but to plug in a drop cord did nothing to alleviate the victimization I suffered from the department I worked in, in other countries the supervisor even visit the home of the linesman to comfort them that they will do their best to see their family member comes home safely to them, the late chairman clarvis Joseph had seen the future benefits of performing live line work, that when I went to management for leave prepared to spend thousands of USD dollar from my pocket for the course he interjected that APUA will pay for it, and that upon my return from northwest lineman college he will do a presentation on ABS tv, they even had another linesman accompany me to college to concretize the benefits to APUA, but Antigua and Barbuda never realized such benefits from the resources of APUA, I was constantly attacked and taken into disciplinery meetings that I lost focus and had an electrical accident, thankful for the training I had while working at BVI electricity corporation that I was always talking to the workmen I was training telling them that the nylon rope we had could be thrown over high voltage lines without getting shock, and as my foreman in the BVI always say keep your rope so we can pull you away from the line in case of an electrical accident, because in those countries the neutral line is at the top and the live phases below, so if you slip on your spikes while climbing your body will be across the phases that is fatal.
I ended up retiring early fearing for my safety because of this acrimonious relationship in that T&D department and this friend and entitlement cliques which continue up to this day, where people are promoted to positions by favoritism validation.
I had started pushing for standards in APUA and staking sheet data, my creative differences intimidate my supervisors, and the fact that APUA don’t have a standard, me coming back from the virgin islands and training the men to climb with pole pikes brought efficiency to APUA, I took the ladders off the trucks that they use to climb, after hurricane Louis and I out performed the Jamaican carilec crew, the then electricity manager an African fellow was petition by the Jamaicans to promote me before they were taken to the airport to return to their country of origin after power was restored in Antigua. The electricity manager tried but it didn’t happen because the T&D department didn’t go far enough as instructed, I write because I leave APUA as one of the most qualify in that field of work, and wanted to pass on my skill and knowledge to APUA and to the benefit of Antigua on a whole.
The present electricity manager is retarding the progress of APUA . Back then under Mr George Piggott and Malcolm Edwards some of the best engineers APUA ever saw, Mr Piggott was responsible for imparting knowledge that created some of the best technicians like Ritchie, toey and ceasar and numerous people and that inspiration I followed while I worked at APUA in the 80’s before resigning and go to the virgin islands to work with the power company, at that time I wanted to become a journey linesman but wasn’t aware there was linesman colleges, so I was to work in the virgin islands and in Turks and Caicos where I would learn hotline work then return to antigua to make my contributions.
Only to be victimized by my immediate supervisors, and the now present electricity manager didn’t lift a hand to help, to him it’s natural attrition to get in his favorite people in position. But the advancement that Apua should have had today that would benefit the customers is set back far, because you can carry a donkey to the well but can’t force it to drink water, that is to say the lack of experience in the electricity division from the electricity manager right down to his subordinates will cost the APUA. We saw it with the power station at APUA dying under his management.
Some of the method of construction I brought to APUA that now save them monies by reducing hardware material and man hours goes unrecognized as to its origins, not from an engineer, but a linesman, as for the supervisors wishes, shouldn’t even get a promotion.
I hope my writing can bring solace to some troubled linesman or worker in APUA been victimized.
But I will smile the day APUA initiate live lines work where no power comes off to affect the water supply and customers are happy, my training is a waste in ANTIGUA, if I was to return to the virgin islands where my name is respected I could contribute to that country, the other day APUA sent a team to a carilec tournament, the apprised by the BVI electricity corporation folks about my contributions and abilities during the time I worked in the virgin islands, even in the Bahamas I was part of a live line team that was given the go
ahead in absence of the Bahamas power company site foreman to work 13,800 volts.
Not romanticizing but I love my work as a linesman, and could walk into APUA tomorrow and pick up where I left off and take APUA to the next level and customers recognizing APUA customer service improvements.
So what exactly is the problem cause this is too consistent lately
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