The situation is gradually recovering in Guadeloupe this Saturday, October 26 in the morning, after a widespread power outage. The prefecture, representative of the State on the Antilles archipelago, has however decided to keep the archipelago under curfew all night, until 6 a.m. local time (noon in France) “in order to guarantee security and tranquility”. “The situation remains fragile and a return to normal should take several hours”she declared Friday evening, specifying that she had carried out “for the requisition of employees whose functions are necessary for the operation of the plant.”
A few hours earlier, the prefect Xavier Lefort had accused “striking employees” to have entered the control room of the Jarry power plant at 8:30 a.m. (2:30 p.m. in Paris) and to have “caused the emergency shutdown of all the engines”. The plant provides almost all of the electricity in the very touristy territory of nearly 380,000 inhabitants and “230,000 homes” were affected by this cut, according to EDF.
This Saturday morning at 2 a.m. local time (6 a.m. in France), the EDF teams had “resupplied 126,000 customers with electricity” of the archipelago, or 55% of those affected. “In total, 104,000 customers are still without electricity,” added EDF, specifying that the re-supply of homes “will be progressive to ensure the stability of the electricity network”.
On the archipelago, the announcement of this widespread outage caused some concern, particularly concerning the distribution of water and the operation of the hospital. As soon as the cut is noticed, “the maintenance teams have activated the generators on all the sites concerned”assured the Guadeloupe Hospital Center (CHUG) in a press release. “The hospital’s critical units have an autonomy of 72 hours,” the CHUG had specified.
«Sabotage»
The president of the department, Guy Losbar, said, in a press release released Friday evening, “particularly outraged by the serious consequences of the general blackout (…) following the sabotage carried out in the control room of the EDF-PEI thermal power plant in Jarry”. “No salary demand, however legitimate, can justify such actions with catastrophic consequences for Guadeloupean households, for our elders, for our health system and for the life of our businesses”wrote Guy Losbar, who “appeals to the responsibility and common sense of the parties involved in this conflict”.
The police had to intervene at 9 a.m. (3 p.m. in Paris), “in order to secure the EDF power plant after the actions committed by some of its employees”, also recalled the prefecture.
For several weeks, a social conflict has opposed the energy branch of the CGT and the management of EDF Insular Electric Production (PEI) in the territory. The social movement, which has lasted since September 15, concerns the implementation of an agreement signed at the beginning of 2023, after two months of strike by the same agents, who demanded compliance of their contracts and their remuneration with the law. labor, including five years of unpaid salary arrears. It had since caused power cuts affecting up to around 100,000 homes.
Last Monday, the management of EDF PEI proposed the signing of an agreement which the CGT Guadeloupe energy federation refused, a final sticking point relating to the method of calculating paid leave.
Guadeloupe is a non-interconnected zone, which means that it must produce its own electricity to meet demand in the territory. Its electricity production depends almost 70% on thermal energy: fuel oil for EDF and wood pellets for the Albioma company which still ran on coal until July.
Source: www.liberation.fr
