The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Bahamian businesses yesterday called for a more rapid transition to solar and other forms of renewable energy after Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) confirmed that it has resumed load shedding.

Christopher Lleida, Premier Importers' chief executive, told Tribune Business he is “tired” of the Prime Minister and other officials travelling to international climate change conferences while the state-owned utility monopoly remains 100 percent reliant on fossil fuel generation.

“Nobody has an energy policy in place to reduce fossil fuel,” he said. “Until the Government stands up and legitimately pursues solar energy we will continue going through this every summer. I’ve got thousands of square feet that I can harness, and have solar panels on and have a net meter, so by the time we shut down in the evening we could have a few hours of supply coming from the panels into the grid.”

The Government pledged in its 'Blueprint for Change' election manifesto that it is committed to transitioning to cleaner fuels and renewable energy. However, BPL has yet to make this leap apart from smaller-scale solar projects on less populated Family Islands.

Mr Lleida said: “If your electricity bill is $100, your fuel bill is $150, but the thing is we don’t make fuel. We do have an abundance of sunshine. We have 12 hours [a day] on average of it. So if generation at BPL is the problem, we have the solution.”

Andrew Higgs, WHIM Automotive's general manager, said BPL needs to use Spanish Wells as a model for the entire country. That location has a main power generator, a back-up generator as well as a third generator on stand-by jut in case the former two end up failing. “So even though they only need a certain amount for the island, they have triple capacity," he added.

“That could be a lesson about how to always be prepared, because the heat is going to destroy equipment and things always come up. This isn’t the first time they have done load shedding, so they should have some contingency in place.

“If we just go solar we wouldn’t have to worry about all of this. We’ve looked into solar, too, and we will see what happens there because it has to make sense and it has to be cost effective, and we have to see how long the panels last. It just has to be worth it. We just can’t go about spending money on panels and, in less than 20 years, we have to spend the same thing all over again.”

Deborah Deal, trustee for the Bahamian Contractors Association (BCA), said BPL revealed during its last mass power outage in summer 2019 that it was 60 Mega Watts short on generation capacity. “Could it be that they have the Wartsila engines but they can only use them two at a time?" she asked.

"Then they also brag about having to supply power to The Pointe, as well as to the Nassau Cruise Port, and that is great that they are able to serve the tourists, but what about the average Bahamian? We need consideration, too. At what point and time, are we as a country going to insist that large entities like Atlantis, Baha Mar, The Pointe and Nassau Cruise Point have their own power source?”

Atlantis and Baha Mar together account for 15 percent of BP's entire customer base, and to lose them would plunge the utility into even greater financial difficulties. “The money BPL makes off of Atlantis is probably way more than it would make off of regular citizens,” Ms Deal said. “It makes no sense having power if you can’t get it to people."