Residents of Dominica faced unexpected rolling power cuts on Tuesday, May 26, 2026, and local electricity provider Dominica Electricity Services Ltd. (DOMLEC) has now pinpointed the root cause of the disruption: a generation deficit tied to mechanical issues at the utility’s Fond Cole Power Plant.
In an official public statement released after the outages, DOMLEC explained that inspectors detected a critical fault in one of the power station’s operational generating units. Faced with a choice between taking the unit offline and worsening the existing capacity gap, company officials made the call to keep the damaged unit running temporarily, prioritizing avoiding a total collapse of available generation over immediate repairs.
According to the scheduled maintenance timeline laid out by DOMLEC, technical teams will not begin full repair work on the faulty unit until after peak electricity demand hours on the evening of Tuesday May 26. The repair works are expected to extend through the night and wrap up on the morning of Wednesday May 27.
The utility has issued a precautionary notice to customers, warning that additional rolling outages may be unavoidable on Wednesday if repair efforts do not resolve the fault, and if overall consumer demand continues to outstrip the company’s current available generation capacity. Should extended load shedding be required, DOMLEC has committed to pushing out timely public updates, including specific information on which communities will face scheduled power interruptions, to help residents plan ahead.
DOMLEC opened its statement with an apology for the disruption and inconvenience that Tuesday’s outages brought to residential, commercial and industrial customers across the island. The company also extended gratitude to the public for their patience and cooperation amid the unplanned disruption.
In a reassuring update for residents, DOMLEC confirmed that the island’s geothermal generation capacity is on track to resume operation on Thursday, May 28. Once geothermal comes back online, the company’s total generation capacity will receive a significant boost, which is expected to drastically lower the probability of additional load shedding in the coming days.
Looking ahead, DOMLEC reaffirmed its long-term commitment to building a more stable, reliable, and environmentally sustainable electricity grid for the people of Dominica, as the country continues to progress toward its national energy transition goals.