The blackout could have been prevented if the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. was able to maintain the coordination of its own power relay system, said a power specialist who declined to be identified.
He said the power problem could have been confined to residential areas that were getting power from the transformer, but the defective system failed to signal the power breaker to isolate the problem.
The power outage started at around 11 a.m. and it was restored at almost 2 p.m.
Gary P. Camacho, CUC power division manager, said he could not disclose the cause of the island-wide power outage because he had yet to get the details from the field personnel.
“I am still waiting for the report,” he told Variety yesterday.
The probable cause of the transformer explosion was the lack of maintenance, according to the power specialist.
When the transformer terminal is not cleaned it will gradually corrode, and the nonconductor mineral will transform into a conductor that can trigger a spark, he said.
On Saturday, only one engine at Power Plant 1 was operational but the Aggreko generators continued to provide 15 megawatts of power.
CUC pays Aggreko over $500,000 a month.
On Saturday, the privately operated Power Plant 4 provided the “feedback power” in order to restart the main power distribution system of Power Plant 1.
