We appreciate all of the community support and have enjoyed communicating with you via radio and Facebook regarding our progress, post hurricane Irma.
To continue the flow of information, we’d like to share answers to some of the questions we get most often.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q 1: Is the ANGLEC main office open to customers?
A: The ANGLEC main office is now open for business with limited hours of 8:30am-1:00pm, Monday-Friday until further notice.
For those inquiring about bill payments and reconnections, please note that connections will be restored accordingly with no late fees.
Q 2: Is there anything I need to do to ensure that power is restored to my home/business?
A: Yes, please continue to be proactive in having your homes and businesses inspected/repaired by a qualified electrician as soon as possible to facilitate reconnection when the time comes.
CLICK HERE to read our property preparation advisory.
Q 3: What is the schedule for my area to get power?
A: Our crews are connecting areas incrementally where possible as they carryout reconstruction and repairs to our infrastructure. We will have more official timelines to share within the next two weeks. The more resources we receive, the more effective we can be in creating and publishing a reliable restoration schedule.
For more information, stay tuned to our radio interviews and look out for updates on Facebook.
Q 4: How much damage did ANGLEC sustain?
A: Our initial evaluations have revealed that approximately 2,000 ANGLEC poles sustained significant damage during Irma, destroying substantial amounts of lines as well.
In addition, the ANGLEC main building, our ABC building offices, Generation Station, T&D infrastructure, IT and phone systems have all sustained severe damage and will take time to fully assess and repair.
Nothing could have prepared us for a storm of this nature but we are working diligently to rebuild.
Q 5: Why don’t we put the lines underground?
A: An underground system is definitely something that would be ideal for the future and we are working towards that reality.
In-fact, several portions of our infrastructure are already underground and have been for many years. We also recently completed an additional underground project at Corito (early 2017). This came at a substantial cost, but it is a step in the right direction.
To do the entire island is an extensive project, costing in excess of several hundred million dollars, but it’s something we plan to do one project at a time.
Customers can help us in our under-grounding efforts by having their service lines put underground during construction. Often times in restoration, reconnecting individual service lines takes a significant amount of time adding to the length and difficulty of restoration.
Q 6: Why are there planned outages already?
Planned outages mean progress! They occur to allow our teams the opportunity to do additional restoration work in an area where power has already been restored.
During the period where power is disrupted, more customers in the area can be connected and unforeseen faults like equipment failure can be addressed. While much of the system (transformers/other equipment) may appear to be in working order initially, some may fail due to the effects of such a significant storm.
Q 7: Why do my neighbours have power and I don’t?
A: There are a few reasons that you you may not have been connected when others around you have. The most common reasons are:
- You are located on a different feeder- If your energy supply comes from a different feeder from your neighbour (or a different portion of the feeder that is not yet energized) it may seem that you have been passed. However, our teams are working systematically and power will be restored once your feeder (or your section of the feeder) is safe to reconnect.
- Materials are not yet available- Delays in shipments and on the ground material/equipment availability have significantly affected our ability to re-connect homes as quickly as we’d like. Items like service wire and transformers, among other supplies, are essential and without them we can not do LV (low voltage) and spur-line restorations. While we await the arrival of more key supplies, our teams must continue working in the most beneficial ways until power restoration is possible.
- Your property is unsafe to reconnect- e.g. Your roof is not repaired, electrical wires are exposed, your meter base or service line is damaged. Customers who fail to have their homes/businesses inspection ready or who have not carried out repairs of their roof or electrical infrastructure will not be reconnected during our initial re-connection phase. We do not restore power to properties with damage for the safety of the customer, our crews and ANGLEC infrastructure. Please have your underground wiring, panel box, weather head, meter base, circuits, and outlets inspected to address any water damage or other issues before our crews arrive. The Government Electrical Inspector will be visiting homes ahead of ANGLEC teams to ascertain their readiness for re-connection.
- Construction is in progress/additional faults on the line – In a situation where there is more damage, active construction or where the area is reconnected but a fault on the line is discovered, some areas may be left unconnected or be disconnected for safety until the construction is complete or the issue(s) can be addressed.
Q 8: There was a team in my area doing work but they left and I was never connected, why?
A: Our teams are working systematically to restore connectivity to businesses and homes everyday. We break the teams into 2 main types of crews, the first crew is our Main Line/Distribution Line crew. They work primarily to reconstruct and restore our poles and HV (high voltage) connections. This is the crew you probably saw in your area that have now left. The connections they make allow for businesses to be reconnected and enable LV (low voltage) connections to take place afterward, which is where the second crew comes in.
The second crew is the Service Line crew that works to restore LV and spur line connections. They will be in your area in the days/weeks following the departure of the first crew to begin the necessary work to restore households like yours.
Q 9: Is there anything that can be done by the general public and/or donors?
A: Yes, we are accepting contributions of supplies, equipment and volunteers/linesmen from other utility companies (within the region and beyond). If members of the community would also like to assist we do accept water and ice for our crews.
To make a utility donation please email our CEO, David Gumbs via david@anglec.com. For community contributions please call our Public Relations Officer, Jemila via 1 (264) 476-5605 or send a message on Facebook.
You can also help us keep our teams and the general public safe by adhering to the following safety directions:
- NEVER plug a generator directly into a wall outlet to prevent back feeding onto ANGLEC’s main grid. Click here for more information on the dangers of improper generation connection.
- Refrain from cutting or moving downed poles or power lines, doing so can pose a severe safety risk and significantly slow ANGLEC’s restoration.
- Please exercise caution when on the roads as our crews are out in various parts of the island conducting dangerous reconstruction and repairs.
As always, your kind words and encouragement keep us going! Please continue to pray for Anguilla and the region.
Q 10: I heard ANGLEC will be receiving assistance from other countries. Is that true?
A: Yes, we are honoured to be able to work with organizations like CARILEC through which, utilities from our sister islands have committed to aid in our restoration efforts.
In fact, on September 14th, 2017 welcomed our first assistance crew from Dominica Electricity Services (DOMLEC). Unfortunately, disaster struck our sister island via hurricane Maria and we had to say goodbye to our DOMLEC team. We are thankful for their assistance and hope to be able to aid in their restoration also.
Since then, we have continued to receive other personnel and resources to add to the strength of our existing efforts.
To date, we have welcomed the following to our restoration/assistance teams:
- Dominica Electricity Services -DOMLEC
- St. Vincent Electricity Services Ltd. -VINLEC
- Grenada Electricity Company – GRENLEC
- St. Lucia Electricity Services – LUCELEC
- Barbados Light & Power
- St. Kitts Electricity Company Ltd. – SKELEC
- Nevis Electricity Services- NEVLEC
- Bahamas Power & Lights
- Montserrat Utilities Ltd.
- Guyana Power and Light
Keep up with the arrival of our support crews on Facebook.
Q 11: How are the teams on the ground? Do they need anything to keep them going…food, drinks?
A: Thank you so much for checking in on our teams! As you can imagine, this is a trying time for us as many of our employees sustained a great deal of material and emotional damage as a result of hurricane Irma.
If you see them on the road please feel free to give them a shout and make an in-kind offer (water, ice, energy bars, energy drinks, etc), they definitely appreciate the support.
As mentioned above, ice and water are what we need most on the road but we are open to other kinds of support also. However, we do no accept financial contributions from the general public.
Community kindness means so much, especially now as many of our team members are facing difficult times after the storm, yet they still show up to work committed to serve Anguilla.
Thank you Anguilla!
Please share this post and check back for new information, we’ll be making updates as things change over the coming weeks.
If you have a question feel free to leave a comment here or send us a Facebook message.
