Protest without a soul
That some people took to the streets to express their frustration about the power outages is understandable. It is, actually, amazing, that some people showed up for the mini protest at all. Recent history shows that the good citizens of St. Maarten are not the protesting type at least not when they have to go out for it.
They complain on social media and at times in letters to the editor, but that’s about it. So maybe the thirty-something protesters that showed up at the Gebe-offices yesterday morning represent the dawn of a new era.
It was, with all due respect, a protest without a soul, without a clear objective. If the purpose was to show popular anger the protest failed based on the bare numbers. Thirty protesters on a population of, say, 40,000, is not something that will rob any CEO of even a minute of sleep.
Nevertheless, the protesters got their media coverage, so it cannot escape anybody’s attention that there are at least some people who think it is worth their time to put some additional pressure on the power company. You’ve got to respect that and believe us, we do.
If the protesters wanted answers, they could have read reports about the press conference Gebe hosted last week. In a nutshell, the management team explained on that occasion what the problem is: moving parts at a speed of 23,000 rounds per minute and the slightest imbalance as a sure cause for trouble.
The real problem is of course that Gebe does not have enough installed capacity. We’re sailing close to the edge with a production capacity that is capable of covering maximum demand, but it cannot withstand the failure of one or two engines at the same time.
When a new engine comes on line next month these troubles should be over – for the time being. The question remains how much Gebe is able to produce and how far that capability is above maximum demand. The difference between those two numbers will give you the margin the company has to play with.
If that margin is, say, 8 Megawatt and an engine producing 11 Megawatt falls out, there is a slight problem. If then another engine fails dropping another 8 Megawatt, scheduled power outages become a fact of life.
In the end it is all a matter of economics. How much does it cost Gebe to install so much overcapacity that it will never have to worry about this so-called load shedding that end users experience as bloody power cuts? And how much are end users prepared to pay for that luxury?
These questions are seldom asked, most likely because the answers are inconvenient. Installing too much overcapacity is not feasible for the company, unless it starts charging tariffs nobody wants to pay.
For now, the protest has underlined that, yes, indeed, people are frustrated. We imagine that Gebe’s management is frustrated too. Not with the protesters, but with the technical troubles they experience.
And you know what? Short of investing a bloody fortune in serious overcapacity, there is not a damn thing anyone can do about it. Equipment with moving parts is bound to break down, even under the best of circumstances. And while a new engine will come online next month and provide at least some overcapacity, new projects – like the Pearl of China – are in the pipeline too; they will gobble up part of that overcapacity. Before you know it, we will be back at square one.
But like with everything else in life, you get what you pay for; also from your utilities company.
