Electricity issue will be resolve in late Ramadan after new generator is tested

State Electric Company (STELCO) has said that the electricity issue will be resolved fully after the tests of the newly installed 8.9 megawatt generator towards the end of Ramadan.

After the installation, the testing of the new generator acquired in January from the free aid from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) began last week. As the testing phase progresses, parts of the capital city, Malé have been experiencing electrical blackouts from time to time.

Speaking at a press conference by STELCO at their Head Office, their Managing Director, Abdul Shukoor said that the testing of the new generator has been brought to a halt until the issue of the damaged high voltage cable which cause two generators to stop resulting in the blackout in Malé City last night can be brought to a halt.

He said that the contractors want to complete their work before they go and STELCO has to consider that further delays would lead to an extra charge. But a decision has to be made if the service is being interrupted.

Abdul Shukoor said that even if the cable damaged last night has been fixed, further testing of the generator could result in further blackouts.

Head of Projects at STELCO, Saif also spoke at the press conference today saying that the ongoing testing is being done by the contractor and the seller and is expected to finished on 30 May.

And as the contract stands, 21 days will be taken to do reliability testing which will begin in June.

STELCO has previously said that there are 26 generators used to generate 64 megawatt of electricity and the new generator would increase the capacity to 72 megawatt.

At peak hours, 55 megawatt of electricity is being used in Malé City according to STELCO.