The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) said Friday that Bahamians could expect power outages this weekend because of engine problems at the Clifton Pier plant.

"The unexpected loss of one engine coupled with ongoing repairs to another machine means that the company's generating capacity on the island is not sufficient to meet peak customer demand," BPL said in a statement.

"When demand is at its peak, typically between 6 and 11pm, an outage rotation will be implemented; impacting some customers for periods not exceeding two hours."

BPL said it will post a schedule of the power outages on Facebook.

"Efforts are underway to complete repairs to both machines within the next 36 hours,” the statement continued. “BPL apologises for these intermittent generation challenges and is confident that with the pending arrival of 40 megawatts of rental generation it will be able to drastically improve its system reliability on the island."

It's unclear exactly when the rented generators providing 40 megawatts of power will arrive.

Although residents of New Providence have not been experiencing power cuts as frequently in recent weeks as they had earlier this summer, BPL has still struggled to provide reliable energy generation to the whole of the Bahamas.

Last week, the company was hard at work trying to restore electricity to parts of Eleuthera, some of which lost power for hours.