PUC restores electricity on La Digue |18 May 2015

Contractors and other people involved in construction work and other building activities close to Public Utilities Corporation infrastructures are being urged to be extra careful.

The Public Utilities Corporation (PUC) made this appeal following an incident on Saturday morning when a JCB doing excavation work damaged its underground cable on Eve Island, on Praslin. The cable supplies electricity to La Digue and this caused power outage on the island.

The corporation said the intense work to rectify the problem took up to 12 hours.
"Our engineers and technical staff, some from Mahe, worked hard to restore power on La Digue," said PUC's chief executive Philippe Morin.

However, he added that because this is the main cable for power supply on La Digue, the task was highly delicate and had to be done with much precaution, thus the amount of time needed for the work.

The cable goes from the Praslin Power Plant through the desalination plant on Eve Island, Round Island and La Digue. It provides 1KW of electricity to La Digue. There are two cables that supply electricity to La Digue which has an electricity demand of 125 amps during peak hours. With the damaged cable only part of La Passe was connected.