Approximately 18,000 Belco customers lost power yesterday afternoon after an engine malfunctioned and then caused others to fail. The outage happened shortly after 3.30 p.m., and affected residences and business across the Island.

Electricity was restored by late evening, with first priority given to venues hosting Tall Ships events.

A Belco spokesperson said "a problem" in the East power station resulting the loss of 40 megawatts of capacity affecting 18,000 homes.