The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

A GENERATOR trip at the Bahamas Electricity Corporation’s Clifton Pier plant is being blamed for the latest power outages in the capital. Despite assurances from BEC Executive Chairman Leslie Miller that power outages will be “few and far between” residents in New Providence continued to experience outages throughout the Independence holiday.

Residents complained that they were left in the dark on Wednesday night, Thursday night and yesterday morning. The blackouts were isolated to certain areas and did not last longer than 30 minutes at at time.

These outages follow the July 3 island wide blackout that lasted nearly 12 hours. When contacted for comment, Mr Miller said he was in a meeting and could only say “the generator had several trips”.

The four American consultants hired by the government to assess the problems at BEC are expected to present their recommendations to both bodies by the end of this week, Mr Miller told The Tribune in an earlier interview.

The consultants from Powersecure, an international company specialising in electricity distribution after disasters, toured the Clifton Pier plant and the Baillou Hills Plant this week and started discussions with management and staff.

Mr Miller was tight-lipped on how much the consultants will be paid, only saying “they are professionals and will be worth every penny” and that “their prices are competitive”.

He said: “They have been going through the system to see exactly what went wrong. They have been dialoguing with our people and they will make recommendations on what needs to be done when everything is finished by the end of the week,” he said.

“They will tell us what took place and how the problem can be rectified and where the problem emanated from. They are also looking at our system and see what we have and what needs to be upgraded. These guys specialise in this type of thing, they are the top four out of the United States in this field.

On Monday, Minister of Works and Deputy Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said the blackout has not accelerated the government’s plans to restructure BEC. However he did say it is still a priority for the Christie administration.