Manual dropped on control panel cuts power across Gib

A heavy instruction manual caused a Gibraltar-wide power cut on Thursday morning after it was accidentally dropped on a control panel in the power station.

The weight of the manual landing on the instruments on the panel caused all electrical power to disconnect, the Gibraltar Electricity Authority said in a statement, as it apologised to customers for the hour-long outage.

It was “a simple human error” by an employee of a sub-contractor, the GEA said, adding it was investigating how the accident came to have such an impact in order to avoid a repetition in future.

“Unfortunately, an employee of the sub-contractor in question accidentally dropped a heavy instruction manual on a control panel in a manner that caused the instruments on the control panel to disconnect electrical power,” the GEA said.

“This affected all auxiliary power to the generating sets that were operational at the time.”

“Upon identification of the error, work commenced on the safe restoration of power supply to the whole of Gibraltar.”

“An internal investigation has been initiated by the Gibraltar Electricity Authority.”

“This investigation will establish how the accidental human error occurred in a manner that had such consequence.”

“Additionally, it will recommend what measures should be put in place to ensure there is no future repetition of this particular problem.”