The Tribune

By KYLE WALKINE

Tribune Staff Reporter

kwalkine@tribunemedia.net

THOUSANDS of customers can expect further disruption from power outages in the coming days as the Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) carries out load-shedding until it is able to rectify a serious problem at both of its New Providence plants. 

BEC’s embattled Executive Chairman Leslie Miller said last night the problem is such that it has forced the corporation to ask some of their major commercial customers, like Super Value, to not use their BEC-supplied electricity but use their generators until the matter is fixed. 

Mr Miller said also that three experts from the US are being flown in tomorrow to see what needs to be fixed and give advice as to how it must be done. 

That will do little to reassure angry and over-heated customers after an island-wide blackout on Thursday night left thousands without power following generator failures at both of BEC’s Clifton Pier and Baillou Hills plants. 

It caused great distress for residents, who sought respite from the heat by driving around in air-conditioned cars and going to gas stations, while some ventured to the beach and slept in their cars until power was restored. 

Mr Miller told The Tribune the outage was caused by a shortage to one of the high voltage cables at a station on Soldier Road. That shortage, he said, percolated a problem at the Baillou Hills plant. 

“All of the engines at the Baillou Hills plant then tripped,” he said. “The load Baillou Hills was carrying was then automatically shifted to Clifton. That then became too much for the engines at Clifton and they tripped as well. So at one point every single engine in New Providence was down.”

That massive power outage lasted from 9.20pm on Thursday until 2am for some and 4am yesterday for others until the Baillou Hills plant was back up and running. 

But that was not the end of the problems: The Tribune understands that shortly after 9am yesterday residents in eastern New Providence saw their power supply go off again, a result of BEC’s load-shedding. 

According to Mr Miller, there is one major generator down at both the Baillou Hills and Clifton plants. He said that now, things are “very tight” and if they aren’t resolved as soon as possible, then BEC will have a “serious problem”. 

“Before that incident we had engines running at full capacity,” he said. “We had excess power. But now that’s gone. We have two major engines at Baillou Hills and three at Clifton. One at each plant is down. So you get an idea of what I’m talking about.”

Mr Miller apologised for the disruption but added that “these engines are man-made and they do break down”. He had stayed through the night to see that power was restored and did not leave until that was done around 5am.

The blackout also had a major effect on Long Island. One New Providence school issued an alert to parents yesterday asking them to “come to collect all summer school students from DaySpring Academy as we are not sure when the electricity will be back on.”

There have been sightings of people on Thursday night sleeping outside on the roof of their car trying to stay cool. One woman, whose picture began circulating on social media, could be seen sleeping with her pillow and blanket on the folding table of a Super Wash laundromat.

Guests at Atlantis, Paradise Island, and One and Only Ocean Club were inconvenienced by the power outage as well. 

Meanwhile, as social media buzzed with irate customers bashing the state-owned corporation, one of Mr Miller’s daughters, Leslia Brice, took to FaceBook to defend her father. 

“My dad could have ignored the calls last night about the power outages,” she said. “But instead he got out of his bed at 9pm and stayed with the BEC workers until 5am this morning ensuring that power was restored; not only for his family and political colleagues but to every Bahamian household because he is committed to serving all Bahamians.”

“The Hon Prime Minister Perry Christie stayed in contact until 3.30am calling every 30 minutes to ensure that power was restored. Be careful when you find joy in trying to bring someone down, born leaders never quit! Will he get any credit for his commitment? Of course not, because in our society the preference is negativity, hatred and evil; never to uplift, motivate and encourage.”

In May, while trying to assure Bahamians that BEC was prepared for the extra load during the summer months Mr Miller said “we don’t expect any blackouts”. 

However, since then there have been numerous power outages. 

The Tribune has compiled a list of some of BEC’s reasons for turning off the power supply, including lightning strike, sabotage, generator failure at the Clifton Pier Plant, load-shedding, an “issue” in the Carmichael Road area and prior to this latest incident the corporation nearly running out of fuel due to “bad weather disrupting shipping”.