Government is bringing in a Canadian power plant expert to investigate Belco?s catastrophic accident.

The Ministry of Health and Family Services is carrying out its investigation separate to the independent inquiry commissioned by Belco?s board of directors yesterday.

Premier Alex Scott said the Occupational Health and Safety Office investigation is being carried out as it would after any industrial accident on the Island.

?If there is any large industrial event, even if it is someone falling off a step-ladder, that Office sees if anyone is culpable,? he said.

Health and Family Services Minister Patrice Minors said yesterday the Occupational Health and Safety Office would be flying in an expert from Canada to help them assess what caused the blackout.

?This is part and parcel of the responsibility of the Health and Safety Office to follow through with investigations. He will also be looking at how Government needs to make assessments of such incidents.? Mrs. Minors said. ?Belco will be doing its own investigation.?

And Belco is getting the support it needs from the Island?s homes and businesses, according to Belco CEO and president Garry Madeiros. Mr. Madeiros said yesterday the demand for electricity at 3 p.m. on Monday was 96 megawatts, but Belco had approximately 113 megawatts available as another ?stranded? engine was brought online.

?We had a meeting last night with a number of business organisations in anticipation of us bringing full power back to the city, to ask them also to provide conservation steps because we highlighted fact were taking from residential environment to ensure city fully supplied,? he said.

The use of generators by some businesses has removed approximately five megawatts of load from Belco?s system.

?The system remains stressed, however, and Belco does not want demand for electricity to neat the maximum generating capacity, which is why ongoing conservation is essential,? he said. By Tuesday afternoon Belco will start work to return its old power plant to its system to provide auxiliary generating capacity.

And it now has five ?feeds? into the City after working 24 hours a day.

?We are hoping by the end of the week, we will be getting to two more of our engines,? Mr. Madeiros said.

He thanked the public and business community for their support.

Chief operations officer Vince Ingham said it would be fair to say things were developing far more rapidly than anticipated.

Mr. Ingham said he was not anticipating any problems with equipment, but even so ?the city remains last group off?.

?We are building our capacity, by bringing engines that were stranded back on-stream,? he said. ?Belco appreciates the co-operation and support of the entire community and reminds everyone that the need for energy conservation remains critical.?