The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

EMBATTLED Bahamas Electricity Corporation Executive Chairman Leslie Miller yesterday defended himself and his family against “vicious” online attacks from “psychos” while seeking to reassure Bahamians that mechanisms will be established to prevent repeats of last week’s island-wide power outage.

Mr Miller said the generator failures at BEC’s Clifton Pier and Baillou Hills plants, which caused blackouts late last week, have been fixed. He added that all of BEC’s engines are functioning at normal capacity.

Emphasising that the government must establish a public-private partnership in order to begin re-modelling the Clifton Pier plant, Mr Miller said four experts from the US will land in the Bahamas today to review the system and oversee the installation of important mechanisms.

He also expressed frustration over online attacks against him and his family in the wake of Thursday’s blackout. Last week, disparaging images of him were spread on social media and a post his daughter Leslia Brice made on Facebook in his defence attracted hundreds of mostly negative comments.

“I have kept my family out of politics since I entered it,” Mr Miller told The Tribune. “This is the first time our people have dragged them (in) and there is nothing to do about it – it is what it is. My family isn’t used to it. I’m sorry it happened. They know politics in this country has been taken to a new low but what you bringing them in it for?”

“Shoot me, I’m the target. But some people are just wicked, evil in their minds. Do something productive when you wake up in the morning. When I get up I read my Bible, pray and go see what I could accomplish today. Instead of complaining, look in the mirror some day and see if you can help yourself.”

Mr Miller said contrary to what some suggested in their social media posts, he and his family do not have a generator as he made a conscious decision in the late 1980s to suffer during power blackouts like most Bahamians.

“When I (first) became chairman (of BEC) in 1989 I refused to buy a generator,” he said. “I could afford it but I didn’t want one because if people catching hell, I will catch hell. I’m just like the average Bahamian. When the lights go out I suffer like them. For the last 30 years, when they are in the dark, I’m in the dark.”

As for general criticism of him, he said: “Let them criticise me, Potcake can take anything. In this Bahamas today, those who are against you are going to be vicious with this internet thing. I’m not an internet person myself, but I know that what we have done is bring down the cost of electricity as best as we could.

“We cut out $8 million in overtime and we stopped double dipping. We stopped contract workers who were connectors and re-connectors from taking home $95,000 a year. You think (critics) can’t show some appreciation for that? What do these people want? None of them say ‘You are doing a good job, you reconnecting people.’ Instead they focusing on the negative. These are the psychos out there, a small group of psychos who just need to say negative things.”

While Mr Miller said residents should not get personal with him, he suggested that he is sometimes a scapegoat in the Bahamian society, especially when power outages occur.

“When they need someone to beat up, they say let’s go after Miller. They need to find someone else. I’m the chairman but I’m not a technician. I simply could articulate in simple language what it all means,” he said.

Nonetheless, Mr Miller emphasised that action must be taken to address BEC’s long-standing issues.

“We needed to put up a new plant at Clifton from at least 15 years ago so we could get 120 megawatts of power,” he said. “We have the capacity to go and get the electricity that is necessary but we need a private enterprise to partner with us to get it right because based on the huge size of current engines, when problems occur it affects every other engine and the country shuts down. We need nine smaller engines so if one goes out, you fix it tomorrow. If two go out, you have seven left. We can’t allow BEC to run itself by itself anymore. We need the private sector.”

Mr Miller hailed BEC workers who he said “did a wonderful job” to restore power last week. He also apologised again for last week’s outage, saying it should have never happened.  

Asked if residents will be compensated, he said: “Unlike BTC, BEC does not have that luxury. We don’t have any money. We running on empty.”

Over-heated customers were left irate after an island-wide blackout on Thursday night left thousands without power following generator failures at both of BEC’s plants. That massive power outage lasted from 9.20pm on Thursday until 2am for some and 4am Friday for others.

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.

There were also reports of shorter power outages in some areas on Friday night. On Friday, BEC warned customers to expect further disruption in power in the coming days as it carried out load-shedding until able to rectify a serious problem at both of its New Providence plants.