The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMAS Electricity Corporation Executive Chairman Leslie Miller says the four American consultants hired by the Christie administration to assess challenges at the corporation will report on their findings next week.

Speaking to The Tribune yesterday, Mr Miller said while Bahamians were eager to hear from Powersecure, an international company specialising in electricity distribution after disasters, they still needed time to complete their assessment.

He said officials at BEC yesterday sent requested information to the company, which was working to notify the government of their recommendations in a timely manner.

“They haven’t gotten done with it (the report) but we expect to hear from them soon. Let the people complete their work,” Mr Miller said.

Powersecure was retained following an island-wide power outage on July 3, which lasted up to seven hours for some residents.

Last week, Mr Miller told The Tribune the consultants would report by this week and he declined to say how much taxpayers’ money would be used for their expertise. He would only say their services would be worth every penny spent.

At the time he said Powersecure had been going through the system to see exactly what went wrong.

Mr Miller 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.”

The blackout, Mr Miller has said 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.”