By Chantalé Fletcher
A RETIRED professor of electrical engineering will head a three-member team to investigate the island-wide blackout on Wednesday.
Minister of Finance Colm Imbert announced the members in Parliament on Friday.
It has one month in which to complete the investigation.
The investigative team included retired Professor of Electrical Engineering Chandrabhan Sharma, former chairman of T&TEC Keith Sirju and acting Superintendent of Police Allister Guevarro.
Imbert said, “Professor Sharma joined UWI in 1986. He received his BSc (Elect. Eng) from the University of the West Indies in 1979, MSc from the University of the West Indies in 1982 and his PhD also from the University of the West Indies in 1993.”
He said, “His research interests are in the areas of Energy Systems and Energy Economics. He is an acknowledged expert in electrical engineering, with over 40 years’ experience in the field, specialising in electrical power, among other related areas.”
Sirju, a former chairman of T&TEC has 50 years’ experience in engineering, Imbert said.
He said, “Sirju was a distinguished Structural Engineer and retired UWI Lecturer, with Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Civil Engineering.”
Imbert said Guevarro, a senior police officer, was currently assigned to the Special Branch and has 25 years’ experience in policing.
Imbert said, “His mandate will be to examine all national security matters associated with and arising from the power outage.”
The finance minister said there had been several blackouts previously which affected the country.
He said, “Contrary to statements made in the public domain by persons who should know better, over the last 12 years, there have been a number of major electricity power outages in Trinidad and Tobago.”
Imbert said on March 29, 2013 there was an outage under the People’s Partnership Government which attracted international attention and was widely featured in the foreign news media, including the Washington Post, New York Times, Tampa Tribune and Miami Herald.
He said, “In that 2013 incident, since the main generating capacity is located in the deep south, it took up to 18 hours for electricity to be restored in several areas of the country, such as northwest Trinidad.”
Imbert said there was a blackout in December 2012 along the northwest of Trinidad that stumped Christmas shopping, with another in August 2011, after lightning struck T&TEC’s Bamboo substation in Valsayn causing power outages to occur in north, central and east Trinidad.
He said in July, 2010, lightning struck a PowerGen power station during heavy rains, causing blackouts in several parts of Trinidad.
“The incident caused seven generators to trip at the Point Lisas facility, affecting areas in Point Fortin, Fyzabad, Santa Flora and surrounding areas,” Imbert said.
