Residents developing homes in new housing schemes in Linden could face delays in securing electricity connections, as the town’s existing generation capacity is already being stretched by demand.
The issue was raised during Wednesday’s Linden Municipality Town Hall meeting, where residents questioned whether planned housing developments would have sufficient electricity to support the growing number of homes expected to come on stream.
Resident Eleze Benjamin-Hall pointed to the recent identification of lots in a new scheme and warned that construction could accelerate before the end of the year, including by residents returning from overseas.
She asked whether the additional five megawatts of generation being planned would be enough to accommodate the new homes or whether applicants could face years of waiting for electricity connections.
In response, General Manager of the Linden Utility Services Co-op Society Limited, Perlina Gifth, acknowledged that Linden is already operating close to its limits and said additional planning would be required to prevent the grid from becoming overloaded.
“Obviously that would call for planning because we already at our peak,” she said.
She explained that the system is currently depending on additional generation while awaiting the introduction of solar power.
“We’re depending on 1.5MW extra, then we have to wait on the solar that will be introduced by December. So, they will obviously have to wait because we cannot overload the system, overload the grid.
Persons would have inquired about what do they have to do in order to receive electricity. But as it is now, we cannot say yes and we cannot say no. All we can say is wait,” Gifth said.
