CAY BAY--A major fault (comparable to a short circuit) occurred in GEBE's main feeder cable between the Cay Bay Power Plant and the Zagersgut substation on Monday afternoon, sending the entire Dutch side of the island into darkness from approximately 4:50pm until 8:30pm.

GEBE Commercial Manager Steve Duzanson explained that the fault had caused a failure of the main transformer, which in turn shut down the entire power distribution system. When the load became too much for one unit to bear, it automatically shut down and so on, causing a domino effect among the units until all automatically shut down.

Power was restored in the Lowlands area first and all areas were eventually brought back online around 8:30pm. Duzanson said GEBE crews would "do some digging" on Tuesday to locate where the cable had been damaged and to repair.

He said this could result in some load-shedding, depending on where the damaged cable was located and the extent of the damage. He could not definitively indicate how long load-shedding periods would be, if implemented.