The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

THE electricity supply to New Providence and Paradise Island has been restored completely, Bahamas Electricity Corporation officials said yesterday.

Following an island-wide blackout on Friday and subsequent load-shedding on the weekend, BEC in a press statement yesterday said power had been fully restored to the last five per cent of affected customers as of 2.30pm Sunday.

Officials were still working on other units to provide “additional capacity for reserve” power.

“BEC officials state that they have returned most generator units to service and have been able to restore electricity supply to New Providence and Paradise Island following Friday’s total system shutdown,” the statement said.

“With the additional engines now in service there is sufficient capacity to meet customer demand. Barring any unforeseen challenges, corporation officials are confident that they will be able to maintain a consistent supply of electricity going forward.

“Additionally, BEC crews continue to work on other units to bring those back on line. This will provide the additional capacity for reserve. Once again the corporation thanks its customers for their patience in the past two days and assures them that efforts will be made to prevent the likelihood of future outages of this magnitude and duration.”

BEC’s statement comes after a “fire in the trenches” at the Blue Hills Power Station on Friday caused an island wide power outage, the effects of which lasted throughout the weekend. BEC Chairman Leslie Miller said the fire erupted after an “overloaded wire” came into contact with oil that had dripped into the trenches at the Station.

As a result, some businesses were forced shut down and turn away customers, and at least one bank closed its doors because of the power cuts on Friday. Additionally, some residents reported that they were without power for up to 36 consecutive hours, while others had to endure a weekend of load shedding.

The power outage also severely affected Atlantis, with both its Beach and Royal Towers without power after two of the property’s generators ran out of fuel.

Additionally, several restaurants within the resort were also forced to close down, guests had to be moved to the Convention Centre and the casino came to a temporary halt.

A press statement released by a spokesperson of the hotel noted that emergency generator power was re-established early on Saturday morning.

However, those at the One & Only Ocean Club on Paradise Island had no electricity supply until it was fully restored around 3pm on Sunday.

Additionally, most of the Cable Beach strip was without power on Saturday night. The British Colonial Hilton also suffered a cut in supply.

On Sunday, Mr Miller told The Tribune that the blackout would cost taxpayers half a million dollars, adding that the catastrophic incident could have easily been prevented if employees did their job.

However, Paul Maynard, Bahamas Electrical Workers Union president, yesterday denied Mr Miller’s claims.