The Tribune

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Staff Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

LAST week’s island-wide black out has not accelerated the government’s plans to restructure the Bahamas Electricity Corporation, Minister of Works Philip “Brave” Davis said yesterday.

However, Mr Davis, who has ministerial responsibility for the state-run utility company, said the matter is still one of priority for the Christie administration.

“The blackout has not affected or influenced the government’s pace in restructuring BEC,” Mr Davis told The Tribune. “The blackout occurred because of a failure of several mechanisms that should have taken place, the staff of BEC responded to the challenges and performed to have power restored.

“The BEC restructuring is still a matter that is still before Cabinet; we wanted to deal with it (today) but there are other matters which will trump that. Within the next week or so we should get to it and devote an entire session to it.

“Fundamentally with the steps we are making we have to ensure that we have the best minds and deliberate well and in the best interest of Bahamians.”

Last August, Prime Minister Perry Christie announced the government’s plans effectively to split BEC in two, by allowing one company to run the transmission, distribution and customer billing, while another company would offer power generation.

BEC released a statement yesterday which said that while investigations into the power outage are ongoing, preliminary investigations reveal that a fault on one of its primary high voltage cables appears to be the catalyst for the power failure last Thursday.

The statement added that a team from an international company called PowerSecure has arrived in the Bahamas and have started initial discussions with the management and staff of BEC.

“As is customary when events of this nature occur, a root cause analysis of the power outage will be conducted and preventative measures put in place accordingly. A comprehensive joint investigation is expected to be completed shortly and additional updates will be provided at that time. The corporation again apologises to its customers for the extended outage and any inconveniences caused.”

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.

There were also reports of shorter power outages in some areas on Friday night.