PowerGen explains ‘blackout’ clock error
PowerGen has offered an official explanation for the incorrect time displayed on a clock at its Penal power station during Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s visit on Good Friday morning to oversee resumption of operations.
“This clock is a Network Time Protocol (NTP) type clock, and is one of several located throughout the company. Once this type of clock loses power it resets to midnight (00:00:00) Universal Coordinated Time (UTC)/ Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) when power is restored.
“These clocks also adjust based on their geographic time zones, reflecting the difference from midnight UTC at the installed location. Trinidad is -4 hours UTC/GMT, so when power was restored, the clock displayed 20:00:00, and would have continued to display (the incorrect time) until it could obtain network time from the ‘Master’ clock. Network access to this ‘Master’ was not available until later in the day when power was restored to the rest of our facilities,” PowerGen said in a statement yesterday.
The entire country was without power from early Good Friday morning when a valve along a National Gas Company pipeline malfunctioned, causing a disruption in the gas supply to PowerGen and other electricity generation companies.
PowerGen is the country’s largest electricity supplier, providing 60 to 70 per cent of power to the national grid.
Electricity was restored at PowerGen’s Penal sub-station first, around 4 a.m. The Prime Minister visited the station at about 5 a.m.
“The fact that the photo displays 21:13:51, means that one hour and 13 minutes had elapsed since power was restored to the clock. That duration is consistent to when power was first restored to the Penal plant after the blackout event. This displayed time therefore was not the time at which the photograph was taken,” PowerGen said.
The company sought to clarify the matter after several blogs and Facebook pages picked up on the apparent inconsistency, suggesting that the Prime Minister had visited the facility before the blackout. Several memes featuring the picture were also created, mocking the situation. —Carla Bridglal
I do hope that Dr Rowley take note of this and stop ranting like a mad man every time he is faced with a reporter trying to make the Prime Minister look like she is lying about everything.