Two Fridays ago, as you know, the lights went out in a nationwide power outage.  The first comfort to register its disapproval at about 8:00 p.m. was the bedside fan as it faded away. Then the overhead fan. Then a palpable yet unwanted wave of quietness. And then the discomfort of relentless tropical heat. Until daylight the next morning.

Minister Daryl Vaz, from the super ministry of Energy, Telecommunications and Transport, was quick on the job and stated that the islandwide power outage was unacceptable and an investigation would ensue.  Let us back up a little to remember that monster hurricane Melissa destroyed a large part of the JPS grid in late 2025. As far as we know, the JPS built back a new grid.

It has only been seven months since Melissa’s havoc; how can the whole island lose power?  The JPS blamed the outage on lightning.  Really.  I can understand if you have lightning in one area that there can be a local outage but the whole nation? Is the new grid that vulnerable?  If so, why?