Load shedding due to a new strike left some 71,000 homes in Guadeloupe without electricity on Thursday, October 17, reported the network administrator in the archipelago. “At the height of the event, 71,000 customers were impacted” due to a deprivation of electricity due to the social movement at the power plant located in the commune of Moule, EDF Archipel Guadeloupe, responsible for the network in the archipelago, reported in a press release.
The cuts began around 2 p.m. (6 p.m. in Paris) in several municipalities. The strike at EDF-PEI, EDF’s local electricity production subsidiary, announced by the CGT’s energy branch abroad, is expected to last until Monday morning.
The social movement, which has lasted since September 15, refers to the implementation of an agreement signed at the beginning of 2023, after two months of strike by the same agents, who demanded compliance with their contracts and their remunerations with labor legislation, including five years. of unpaid back wages. It has since caused power outages affecting up to 100,000 homes.
Guadeloupe is a non-interconnected area, which means that it must produce its own electricity to meet the territory’s demand. Its electrical production depends almost 70% on thermal energy: fuel oil for EDF and wood pellets for the company Albioma, which until July continued to operate with coal. The Albioma thermal power plant covers around 30% of the archipelago’s electricity production. Each engine stoppage of one of these two plants causes an imbalance in the network between the supply and demand of electricity, which forces the manager EDF Archipel Guadeloupe to carry out load shedding to avoid any blackout.
