Island lost power and water in storm
THE ARMY lent a helicopter to supply Tabarca island with a generator after its electricity supply was damaged by the storm last week.
Electricity company Iberdrola explained that it detected an incident in its network to supply the island last Monday, but the storm made it impossible to reach the island by boat.
Residents were cut off for over 24 hours as they could not get to the mainland and had no electricity or drinking water, as there was no power to its pumping system. Thanks to the army, which provided a large capacity helicopter, the company was able to fly over a powerful 325 kilowatt generator, which due to its weight and the shallowness of Tabarca port would have been complicated to transport by boat.
Since the storm subsided on Wednesday, Iberdrola was able to take over five 100kw generators by boat, giving the island enough power to cope with the influx of tourists over the Easter holidays. The operation involved over 30 people, including Iberdrola employees and collaborators, and the supply was restored at about 13.00 that day. On Friday, specialists from a diving company started looking for the exact point where the underwater mid-tension cable from Santa Pola had broken, approximately one kilometre off the island.
Iberdrola assured that once they have determined the cause of the problem, they will study and evaluate how to repair it.
The opposition Socialist party in Alicante said projects to produce and store energy from renewable sources, such as solar or wave power, should be undertaken to ensure Tabarca can be self-sufficient.